The Essence Festival Of Culture is gearing up to make New Orleans the place to be during this 4th Of July weekend: The 2025 edition of the festival is set to run from July 4 to 6 at Caesars Superdome, and the lineup so far is led by GloRilla, Summer Walker, and Nas.
Beyond them, also involved are Muni Long, Maxwell, Boyz II Men, Davido, The Isley Brothers, Donell Jones, Buju Banton, and others. On top of that, Jermaine Dupri will lead a Quincy Jones tribute titled “Essence Flowers,” which will (per a press release, as Billboard notes) “bring together artists who’ve sampled, studied or shared space with the music titan.”
This news is dubbed as the “first wave” of the lineup, so more artists should be announced in the future.
The theme for 2025 is “We Are Made Like This”; The festival website explains in part, “We are boundless. Unstoppable. Limitless. In a world that often seeks to define, diminish, or contain us, we remain expansive — rooted in the richness of our past and rising with the unstoppable force of our future. We are layered, luminous, and unapologetically limitless.”
The show will be hosted by Anthony Anderson and Kenny Burns. The weekend will also feature lifestyle experiences like Essence Food & Wine Festival, Essence Film Festival, BeautyCon, and Essence Authors. Tickets are on sale now via Ticketmaster.
