ESSENCE Festival Draws Nearly Half Million People

Nearly a half million attendees converged upon New Orleans this Fourth of July weekend for the 2015 ESSENCE Festival, one of the country’s largest live events. The annual 4-day Festival, which took place July 2-5, features entertainment, empowerment, and cultural experiences during the day and the world’s best performers each night. In addition, for the first time this year, the ESSENCE Festival touched tens of thousands of fans around the world via 100 hours of produced live-stream content. Highlights of the 2015 ESSENCE Festival include:More than 80 performing artists–including some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry such as Kevin Hart, Ustreaming video garnering more than 200,000 Live Stream views covering select performances and daily talk show ESSENCE Live.Over 100,000 social media posts driving over 1.5 billion impressions with trending status on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as well as first-time Twitter Periscope celebrity guest segments.Explosive growth in Festival fan mobile usage, with page views up by 80% and unique visitors growing 132% year over year—largely due to 80% increase in video consumption year over year.