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With its future in New Orleans in limbo, the Essence Festival of Culture is entertaining talks with other cities about potentially relocating in 2027.

On Sept. 12, the festival sent an 18-page “host city information package” — code-named “Project Marshmallow” — to tourism executives in Atlanta, according to emails obtained by Perdido Street.

The package touts Essence Fest’s track record of attracting thousands of visitors to New Orleans for the Fourth of July weekend and generating millions of dollars in state and local tax revenue.

But it also hints at a source of friction in the festival’s negotiations with New Orleans: its poor performance in filling hotels.

In 2026, New Orleans hotels set aside a block of 9,582 room nights for Essence Fest from June 29 to July 8.

The festival found guests for only 2,323 — a pick-up rate of 24%.

That was the lowest room pick-up in Essence Fest’s 31-year history, according to an August report produced by a steering committee appointed by New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno.

At the festival’s peak — Friday, July 3, and Saturday, July 4 — hotels in New Orleans set aside 2,435 rooms. But on both nights, the festival found enough guests for about 500 rooms, according to a one-page memo Essence Fest shared with Atlanta tourism officials on Sept. 28. (Perdido Street obtained the emails via an open records request to the Georgia World Congress Center Authority.)

In response to a request from Atlanta for more detailed data, Essence Fest on Oct. 2 also provided a spreadsheet showing the pick-up rate for 25 unnamed hotels in New Orleans in 2026.

One hotel set aside 1,189 room nights. The festival filled only 16 — or 1.3%.

The report produced by Moreno’s steering committee in August argued that the festival’s “late announcement of talent” — it added two headline acts with just two weeks’ notice — limited “attendees’ ability to plan travel and secure accommodations during their typical summer vacation planning cycle.”

It also said “frequent staff turnover” and the “lack of an established, coordinated hotel block fulfillment strategy” contributed to the poor performance.

Essence Fest, in its 18-page package to Atlanta, said that at least two hotels reported being fully sold out on at least one weekend night.

But it also acknowledged that there was room for improvement, citing recommendations from hotels and its third-party housing partner, ConferenceDirect, for improving communication and coordination.

For now, it’s unclear where Essence Fest will land in 2027.

A spokesperson for Essence Fest said the festival sent the 18-page package to Atlanta — and multiple other cities — after getting inquiries about relocating.

But the festival’s preference, the spokesperson said, is to remain in New Orleans.

The Moreno administration has offered to extend the festival’s contract in New Orleans by one year, though Essence Fest said it’s holding out for a multi-year agreement.

“A Festival that generates this much for a host city, and that has paid more than $40 million to Louisiana partners over the last three years, cannot plan year to year,” a festival spokesperson said Tuesday.

The festival’s contract negotiations with New Orleans hit a snag last month, after at least two vendors contacted City Hall saying the festival was late on payments.

It marked the second year in a row that the festival was late on paying its vendors, and prompted House Appropriations Chair Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, to swear off partnering with Essence Fest again.

A spokesperson for Essence Fest said Tuesday the festival is “at close to 96% of vendors being paid in full” and that remaining invoices are being reconciled against the work delivered.

Essence Fest said it still hasn’t received the full payment from its “civic partners” as promised, though a spokesperson wouldn’t say how much money is owed and by whom.

Under its now-expired contract, Essence Fest was slated to receive $1.7 million in direct payments following this year’s festival from City Hall, the New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Foundation, New Orleans & Co. and the Greater New Orleans Hotel and Lodging Association.

Moreno, for her part, said City Hall paid on time.

“It just seems like we’re just going around in circles,” she told reporters on Oct. 29 in response to Perdido Street’s exclusive reporting on the stalled negotiations.

Moreno added that New Orleans will have a Black cultural festival in July, “whether it’s Essence or somebody else.”