Relive The Moment: Ledisi Buys Her Own ESSENCE Festival Ticket After Losing Passes

Imagine being a young artist performing at ESSENCE Festival for the first time and anticipating all the access you will have to some of your favorite artists and then your passes go missing. This is what happened to Ledisi but she didn’t complain and reach out trying to get more passes, she decided to take in the experience of the festival like a true fan.

“I was performing at the Superlounge and we had passes to go to the MainStage. Something happened to my passes. It was my first time at Essence [Festival] at the Superlounge and it was packed, it was great, I was on a high but I wanted to see Prince. He was on roller skates and all that. I bought my ticket because someone took my passes. I sat in a row right before the bleachers went up. It was that far back. I had the best time by myself. It was the last ticket on that row and I said to myself ‘One day I’m going to be on that MainStage and one day I am going to meet Prince.’ And all that has happened since then. I had so much pride in purchasing my ticket and so much fun being an audience member and enjoying it. To be in the audience with the audience and enjoying the festival like everybody else, I miss that. That was an amazing moment for me. I love Prince and he had Sheila E., Mavis Staples, Larry Graham and he featured all these people that he loved. Then he played his own stuff. Chaka Khan was there too. I was in heaven in my little seat.

I’m glad he’s there again this year. Hallelujah! Now all he has to do is say ‘Led can you come up and see with me.’ [Yells] ‘Yes!’ Then I will really lose my mind. I mean I’ve sang with him before but not at Essence Festival.”

ESSENCE Festival is always full of surprises so you never know  who Prince will pull on stage. Get your tickets here.