Prince Celebration 2019 Recap: The Legacy Lives On

WHAT DIDN’T WORK:

COST:

To assure Prince’s legacy continues, the estate and Paisley Park will need to be more aligned with the fans who supported him. That means making the Celebration more affordable. One of the ways to do it is to offer day passes, a standard at other multi-day events and music festivals.

As it stands now, you must attend all four days at a cost, with airfare and hotel, that can be well into the thousands of dollars. Though people spent outrageous amounts of money to follow Prince around the world, he’s gone and there’s not the same incentive. Also, Paisley does not do late night parties, which is a shame as there was once no limit on how late Prince could, and frequently did, play. They should work with the town of Chanhassen to at least host one or two dance parties or other events that go a little later than 9 or 10 p.m.

MARKETING

Also, Paisley Park needs to work better with fanbases, Prince groups, pages and online fan collectives as well as podcast hosts to spread the word to their followers who may be inclined to link up and share accommodations and drive or plan for travel together. Minneapolis is easily accessible from both coasts by plane and is less than a day drive for most of the Midwest. Each year, there are “unofficial” Celebration events, parties and performances and once again, Paisley should be working together with them to link all Prince-related events.

MINNEAPOLIS

It’s a truly gorgeous city with many attractions, yet Paisley Park’s Celebration tends to focus on Prince only. While the Meet Minneapolis tourism board does a great job of listing Prince activities and related events, Paisley needs to find a way to loop in hotels for packages, etc. during Celebration time. A win for Paisley Park is a win for overall tourism and the two entities should find a way to work better together. It seems that all the folks involved in Celebration work independently but instead should be working together for the greater good.

PROGRAMMING 

At some point, Prince associates and collaborators will die out, as will the fanbase. So what is the plan for the future of Paisley Park and the Celebration? There are other events to model after – Philadelphia does a “Philly Loves David Bowie Week” though the city is not as closely associated with Bowie as Minneapolis is with Prince.

During “PLDBW,” there are art shows, a masquerade ball, a karaoke night, a brunch, a burlesque show, a film screening and multiple concerts. There are a host of events that happen in April for Celebration and then more happen in Minneapolis around Prince’s birthday. Maybe, as fans have suggested, the Celebration should just move to June.

The Celebration must attract bigger name talent that either has been associated with Prince or shares his musical sensibility. Lenny Kravitz, Janelle Monae, even an Anderson Paak could perform if they could attract/afford them. Otherwise, they will have to figure out how to expand on performance and panelist choices. That is where Troy Carter should be the most valuable. Even Ava Duvernay could be a guest to talk about working on the doc.

Prince made 39 studio albums and did multiple tours. Those could be panels on those as well. The Celebration should include a superfan panel, a journalist’s panel, and yes, a panel of Prince’s female collaborators, including ones that have not been at the Celebration previously, like Jill Jones, Nona Gaye and Carmen Electra. Authors of the multiple Prince books should be able to sell their books there, which did happen off-campus this year.

And an art show/auction would be great, as Prince has inspired many an artist, including Walter Lobyn Hamilton, who makes artwork with vinyl records and the guy who creates Prince art in the Riley Park tunnel across the street from Paisley Park. He’s there for free; invite the guy in!

Prince was innovative and relentlessly creative and his Celebration, going forward, should reflect that.

PHOTO, VIDEO: The Prince Estate/Steve Parke

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