00:00I'm here at Cafe Quintalba, right here in Jackson Square, the heart of the French Quarter,
00:12and of course, it's the 2015 Essence Festival. I have joining me now, Deputy Managing Editor,
00:17Donnie Walton. How are you? I'm great, Dana. How are you? I'm fabulous. Thank you. You look
00:21beautiful. Thank you. You too, as always. Thank you. Thank you, kindly. Thank you, kindly. So,
00:25let's just jump right into it. What is it like getting ready for the Essence Festival? Well,
00:31there's so many things to think about, right? I mean, we work there, so we got to think about work.
00:34Everything, right? You got to think about what are you going to wear. Definitely. Three different
00:38outfits a day, two for the daytime, one for night for the concert. Yes. So, that's a thing. That's
00:44what you're going to do with your hair, all of that stuff. Everything goes into it. And it's really
00:48hot down here, so you want to think like fabrics, bright colors, that sort of thing. Readable is
00:53a key word. Readable is your best friend right now. Yes. Yes. So, who are you looking forward
00:58to seeing this year? I am excited about Missy. Yes. I need to see those dance routines. Her and
01:04Usher's Dancers, actually. Right, right. So, I'm really excited about that. Always excited
01:07about Erica. I do. Definitely. Lovely. And it's going to be great to see Missy Elliott and
01:11have her bring back some of those hits. Yes. So many hits in her portfolio. So many hits.
01:19Anybody that you're looking forward to seeing at the convention center? Because during the day,
01:22we have an empowerment experience that's free to the public. So, anybody there that you're
01:26looking forward to seeing? I'm so excited about Deep Hawk. I think that is going to be
01:30really amazing. He's talking about peace as a lifestyle. Oh, nice. Nice. I'm excited
01:35about the Empower You workshops. I work on that, programming that content. So, that's going
01:39to be really good. We have great stuff in Candy Burris and Shaunti. Nice. Nice. And so,
01:44you say you work on programming that experience. How far to dance do you usually start? Oh. Almost as soon
01:51as 2014 festival was done. Got you. So, next week, you're going to start planning 2016. Yes.
01:55Next week, we're talking 2016. Got you. Got you. So, this year also marks the 10th anniversary
02:01of Hurricane Katrina. Does that bring up any feelings for you? Or what does that mean to
02:05Essence Festival? Well, I wasn't working at Essence when Katrina hit. And that one year,
02:12we had to move to Houston. Right. I remember that year. But I have heard people saying, you know,
02:17there are many people who went to that Houston. And they were saying, it just wasn't the same.
02:22It's not the same. It's not the same. It's just not the same. Of New Orleans. It's New Orleans.
02:26It's so special. And it's such, I can't think of Essence Festival removed from New Orleans.
02:31The people of New Orleans. The food and the culture. The food. The food.
02:36So, Donnie, tell me, each and every year, what's one thing, or two, or three, that you look forward to?
02:48I would almost need to say five, but I'll give you three. Okay. Okay. So, one is walking to that Superdome
02:54and seeing the screens all lit up with the social media. I work on social media, so that's really
02:58satisfying to see people just having a good time. Right. And seeing their tweets and their Instagrams
03:03up on that screen is really fun. Right. I like going to the convention center, going up to the
03:07second floor, near our production offices, and looking down onto the floor is really incredible.
03:14It's amazing. It's so many people. So many people. Around Saturday at 2 p.m. It's crazy.
03:20And everybody's dancing. Oh, it's so much fun. There's lots of giveaways. There's something for everyone
03:25of all ages. Yes. Kids, you come out. It's free in the convention center. Free.
03:29Each and every day. There's always something fun that's happening there.
03:32Yeah. And what is it like to have so much of this year's festival live stream and live online?
03:38I think it's so incredible. You know, we've really grown. Every year, festival gets bigger
03:43and bigger and bigger. I don't know how we do it. I don't know. How do we do it? How do we do it?
03:47But to be able to share it with people who are watching at home or even if, you know, the thing
03:52about festival, there's so much content happening all the time that maybe you miss something and
03:57you'll be able to, like, if you're in one session or you're walking from one booth to another,
04:02you know, you can call up your phone, you know, and watch all the highlights on Essence.com.
04:06And that way you don't really miss anything. Yeah.
