ESSENCE Expands Digital Programming with 'Live from the ESSENCE Festival'

Live Stream Video, Real-Time Onsite Newsroom to Create All-Access Digital and Social Experience for Fans

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NEW YORK, June 29, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- ESSENCE today announced its slate of 'Live from the ESSENCE Festival' digital programming for the 2015 ESSENCE Festival presented by Coca-Cola in New Orleans, Louisiana, July 2-5.  The Festival will come to life as an all-access digital and social media experience for fans featuring 24 hours daily of streaming video, as well as real-time newsroom and social media reporting across ESSENCE platforms Essence.com, EssenceFestival.com and YouTube.

In addition, the brand's hugely popular weekly entertainment and pop culture talk show 'ESSENCE Live'powered by Samsung will stream a one-hour special each day from Center Stage on the floor of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center; featuring celebrity guest segments, musical performances, live audience games and interaction, and much more. Each night, select musical performances will be live streamed from Superdome stages.

"We are expanding the ESSENCE Festival's footprint with a fully immersive digital and social media experience," said ESSENCE Deputy Managing Editor Dawnie Walton.  "With more than 100 hours of free, live programming at the Festival, there is so much to take in.  We are tripling our offering of video and live streams to enable fans in New Orleans and around the world to embrace the best in entertainment and culture--'Live from the ESSENCE Festival'."

The ESSENCE Festival Newsroom will capture all of the entertainment, style and substance of the Festival with wall-to-wall coverage all weekend long. Essence.com will provide up-to-the-minute highlights and behind-the-scenes access to the artists, performers, speakers and influencers in attendance through expanded video packages, photo galleries and exclusive celebrity interviews. 

Fans can stay close to the action by visiting Essence.com and following Essence on Twitter and Instagram@essencefest #EssenceFest #EssenceLive and becoming a fan of 2015 ESSENCE Festival on Facebook.

The 2015 ESSENCE Festival is executive produced by ESSENCE Festivals LLC, a division of ESSENCE Communications Inc. (ECI), and produced by Solomon Group. GeChar is the executive producer of the 2015 ESSENCE Empowerment Experience and ESSENCE Empower U.

Sponsors of the 2015 ESSENCE Festival include presenting sponsor Coca-Cola and major sponsors Ford, McDonald's, Samsung, State Farm, Verizon, and Walmart.  Superlounge sponsors include Coca-Cola, Ford, Verizon and Walmart.  The All-Star Gospel Tribute is sponsored by Walmart.

ABOUT ESSENCE COMMUNICATIONS INC.:  

ESSENCE Communications Inc. (ECI) is the number one media company dedicated to African-American women, with a multi-platform presence in publishing, live events and online.  The company's flagship publication, ESSENCE magazine, is the preeminent lifestyle magazine for African-American women; generating brand extensions such as the ESSENCE Festival, ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood and Black Women in Music, Window on Our Women and Smart Beauty consumer insights series, the ESSENCE Book Club,ESSENCE.com, and ventures in digital media (mobile, television and VOD). For 45 years, ESSENCE, which has a brand reach of 13.4 million, has been the leading source of cutting-edge information and specific solutions relating to every area of African-American women's lives.  Additional information about ECI and ESSENCE is available at www.essence.com.

SOURCE ESSENCE Magazine