The 2008 Essence Musical Festival, presented by Coca Cola, takes over New Orleans this weekend, with entertainment, empowerment, food, funk and crowds expected to top 200,000.

Three years after Hurricane Katrina forced the country’s largest black music fest to retreat for one year to Houston, the festival in New Orleans from July 4-6 will honor R&B great Patti LaBelle and also bring to the stage of the SuperDome stars such as Kanye West, Mary J. Blige, Chris Brown, Rihanna, Chris Rock, Keyshia Cole, Jill Scott, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, Morris Day & The Time and LL Cool J. And in some of the SuperDome’s Superlounges, more legends and even up-and-coming stars will perform.

“One of the challenges for us every year is to make the festival a bigger and better experience for our loyal festivalgoers,” said Michelle Ebanks, president of Essence Communications.

“Last year, our homecoming to New Orleans was absolutely amazing, so we wanted to make sure that we maintained that exultant spirit of recovery. We worked very hard to secure the best talent, from performers like Rihanna, new to the Essence Music Festival stage, to an all-star tribute to living legend Patti Labelle — we wanted something our multi-generational audience could enjoy,”