The 2012 Essence Music Festival is still popular - just not as popular as it proved to be last year.
The numbers are in from this year's event - and organizers say it drew 413,000 people to New Orleans for the four-day event over the Fourth of July weekend. That's down two percent from last year - when 422,000 attended.
That event ran three days instead of four.
This marked the 18th anniversary of the festival.
This year a fourth day was added to focus on the next generation of young stars.
Headliners for this year's event included Aretha Franklin, Charlie Wilson, Mary J. Blige, Trey Songz, Fantasia, comedian Kevin Hart and D'Angelo.
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