Essence Festival 2018 was AMAZING!!! It was about sisterhood after the blockbuster hit movie “Girls Trip”, which was filmed at Essence Festival 2016 and was in the theaters summer 2017. Anyone who follows me and my blog you know that I have been attending Essence Festival for years. This year was no different, LOTS OF FUN!! One thing was missing, my sissy Alycia AKA Foodie Engineer. She is a culinary student and couldn’t miss class for Essence. This year the most people ever attended Essence Festival. They have calculated that New Orleans made over $1 billion dollars from festival attendees this year.

As usual the sponsors gave me an experience I will never forget My Black is Beautiful, New Orleans Multicutural Tourism Network, Ford, and McDonald’s.

My experience started with the press conference to tell us what we had to look forward to this year at the festival and introduce all the sponsors.

My Black is Beautiful gave us a wonderful experience hosted by Lisa Nichols (a former guest of The Ask Dr. Renee Show) a performance by Gallant and a surprise visit and words by Queen Latifah.

New Orleans Multicultural Tourism Network invited us to brunch at the Stella Jones Gallery.

McDonald’s hosted the 365 Black Awards and they honored some amazing women including Sheryl Lee Ralph and fellow Michigander Monique Vann-Brown (she owns several McDonald’s restaurants in the Ann Arbor, MI area).

On the last day I drove a Ford F-150 that basically placed your phone on the screen inside and allowed you to use your apps and it comes with WAZE (my favorite GPS!!). We had lunch at the Free People of Color museum and had cupcakes from the Cupcake Fairies, then finally my first swamp tour!!