“New Zealand, France, Germany, England, California, Texas, more….”
The international roll call of visitors to the Twin Cities for the recent Prince Celebration 2024 five-day event, was as diverse as ever with the loyal traveling great distances to spend a long weekend at events at Paisley Park and in downtown Minneapolis, in kinship with others that felt as passionately about Prince’s music.
After a trio of initial Celebration events in the early 2000’s, the gathering was suspended as Prince focused more time on recording and touring, picking back up again after his untimely death in 2016, and now, with this sixth posthumous installment and second annual event organized by the NYC-based holding company, Prince Legacy LLC headed by L. Londell McMillan and Charles Spicer that oversees half of the Estate.
The event took place a little later than usual to better commemorate the 40th anniversary of Prince and The Revolution’s seminal album and accompanying film, “Purple Rain”, which were respectively released in June and July of 1984, with both topping the charts, and even earning the Purple one an Academy Award. We detailed other 40th anniversary products and marketing previously here.
THURSDAY
The five-day affair got off to a real bang on the Thursday morning (well, for VIPs) who, similar to last year, were privy to unheard, unreleased tracks from the vault, over an hour-long listening session.
In addition to early demos of “Let’s Go Crazy” and “Purple Rain” as part of the ten tracks, “First Time I Saw U” was an upbeat collaboration with his father, John L. Nelson. News was revealed of an unreleased Jamie Starr (one of his many alter egos) album via the track, “Friction” and the title track of another unreleased (and previously unknown) album, 2003’s “Calibama” was also previewed.
Additionally, VIP ticketholders saw a repeat airing of the Purple Rain Tour finale show, from the Orange Bowl in Miami from April 1985, but like its previous airing, was not shown in its entirety. An evening dance party also took place with familiar DJ Lenka Paris spinning the tunes at the W Hotel in the Foshay Tower.
FRIDAY
All the events on the second and third days (Fri and Sat) moved into downtown Minneapolis as all attendees watched most of one of seven Purple Rain-era concerts shot by the house cameras at the fabled Capitol Centre in Landover, MD. As the house lights went up, a surprise panel took place with Billy Sparks, who played the club owner in the film and who told some hilarious stories and of his initial meeting Prince in 1979.
After a brief break, the crowd got to see the newly remastered version of “Purple Rain”, a film the majority of the audience already knew by heart, which morphed the viewing experience into an interactive “Rocky Horror”-esque viewing, complete with crowd repeating of key lines, cheering at the concert clips, and mass dancing from seats and aisles. 
As the credits rolled, members of The Revolution (playing the first of two nights later
that evening down the street at First Avenue) came out to sit for a brief panel discussion, revealing a few stories about the behind-the-scenes of the filming.
Their live set later that evening, stretched to just shy of ninety minutes, and covered songs through the end of their tenure in 1986, and featured special guest star / late era protegee Judith Hill for much of the second half of the set.
SATURDAY
The day began with the second of two promised concert screenings- not the predicted seminal First Avenue footage from August 1983 when several “Purple Rain” songs were played live for the first time ever, but a revealing 2004 Reno, NV Musicology era soundcheck which revealed both Prince’s pure skill as a guitarist/bandleader and showcased how musically versatile and always at the ready, his live band had to be (still, a Purple Rain 40th commemoration without viewing that important First Ave show, seemed woefully incomplete).
Local TV personality Reg Chapman took to the stage to introduce Morris Day, who sat and waxed poetic, had nothing but good things to say about everyone, and kept the audience mesmerized and laughing with his light-hearted and unique storytelling abilities.
Another highly anticipated segment was a world premiere live viewing of what the upcoming “Purple Rain” musical will consist of, in an admittedly early workshopped performance of a couple songs, led by the vocally incredible Rachel Webb in the Apollonia role (fingers crossed she remains in the role).
Director Lileana Blain-Cruz was visibly more than excited to be at the helm of this upcoming production (which world premieres next year in Minneapolis) as was Tony Award-winning book writer (for last year’s “Appropriate”) Branden Jacob-Jenkins and musical director, Jason Michael Webb, fresh from the recent MJ: The Musical project. 
Susan Rogers, Prince’s sound engineer from 1983-87, was honored with the event’s Legacy Award (“that’s Doctor Susan Rogers”, she quipped to McMillan when receiving) and then patrons filed into the streets for an all-day block party (which was briefly interrupted by rain), taking place under the auspices of the Prince mural, to witness live DJs and music performances, including Australian teen blues guitar prodigy Taj Farrant, who would also play later that night, and later in the weekend.
Along with Farrant, Morris Day played a too-short half-hour set backed by the current lineup of the New Power Generation, with the NPG (led by keyboardist / musical director Morris Hayes; original rapper Tony Mosely, guitarist Mike Scott and vocalist MacKenzie) playing their own headlining set, with guest appearances from Kip Blackshire and Rosie’s daughter, Latoya Gaines.
SUNDAY
This more laid-back day reverted the location of activities back to Paisley Park, beginning with a gospel brunch and associated live performances, followed by an extended Q+A session with engineer Rogers under an outdoor tent. This additional time actually allowed the audience to come up and ask a question that was on their mind (something Celebration panels oddly do not usually make time for). Unfortunately, those on one of the two VIP schedule tracks had to leave early to keep to their schedule, leaving the tent just half full for Rogers' second half discussion and question-taking.
MONDAY 
The final day was again light on organized activities, mostly making room on the schedule for groups of VIP ticketholders to enjoy a boat cruise on Lake Minnetonka (never-minding the famous scene in the film where Apollonia goes into the water was not filmed on the actual lake) and the studio/museum was open for self-guided tours (though rooms like for The Black Album and Studio B were completely closed, and the well-reviewed recent shoe exhibit had been replaced by more Purple Rain-era memorabilia), merchandise shopping, and live performances in the main soundstage approximately every 30 minutes, including powerful opening and closing sets from Liv Warfield and local singer/producer Jordan Johnston.
As in previous years, schedules and event confirmations were very last-minute (something Prince himself could get away with, but it shouldn’t be the case for this event with so many international attendees and need to coordinate transportation and details). And as a result, some Purple Rain-era guests that should have been present, were not able to attend.
McMillan addressed some of the inconveniences and missteps during the weekend and seemed receptive to at least listening to make the event better in coming years. Its move into downtown Minneapolis for many of the events and the widening scope of activities proved the organizers are at least trying to extend and expand their reach for greater awareness and to attract more attendees outside of the hardcore faithful (who aren't getting any younger).
More info regarding any vault releases (why not partner with Nugs as Pearl Jam, Springsteen and others successfully have, to create a Live Concert series for download and purchase?), the long-in-the-works Netflix documentary (four years and counting...), and potential upcoming deluxe edition releases (a 4LP edition of the Symbol album leaked- legit or not?) were never really addressed. 
The attendees also often felt less of an interactive part of the activities than they should have (i.e. why doesn’t every panel allow time for audience Q+A, like at basically every fan convention everywhere?) and the organizers should allow related optional fan-organized and led panels (again, like at most cons) happen to help fill out the schedule.
Despite the predictable hiccups, the future remains hopeful for Prince Celebration, based on the 2024 event- there’s an active effort to expand and re-think the event; make the city of Minneapolis a more inclusive location to its schedule; and organizers’ hearts (and subsequently, their pocketbooks) remain in mostly the right place – to continue to honor and uphold the musical legacy that was the once-in-a-lifetime genius of Prince Rogers Nelson.
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