NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — On June 30, the 2022 Essence Festival will return to New Orleans.

Many attendees and vendors are excited to have an opportunity to experience the festival of culture.

Vendors like Alicia Boateng are excited to visit New Orleans all the way from Coral Springs Florida to showcase some of her famous celebrity cups.

The cups are well known by celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg, Tiffany Haddish, and Octavia Spencer.

Boateng used to be a wedding and event planner for 20 years and she said she was burnt out from the business and wanted to launch a new business that still showed her creative side.

Alicia Boateng Designs launched in 2019, but she didn’t start selling her designed cups and mugs until 2020.

During the pandemic, Boateng said she was sitting and drinking her daily cup of coffee when she thought about decorating coffee mugs.

“It would make my morning a more enriched experience, you know what I mean it would just make me smile, and what a better way to start your morning than with a smile right.”

Alicia told WGNO that as soon as she launched her designed mugs, they were a hit.

Boateng said she never expected her mugs to become so popular.

“After the tenth person came to me asking for the cups, I’m like okay I have something going on here,” said Boateng.

Boateng signed up to showcase her cups at the 2020 ESSENCE Festival, but the event was canceled due to the pandemic.

Boateng said, “It just wasn’t the right time.”

In 2022 she believes this is the right time. Boateng said she hopes to empower women “One cup at a time.”

“The message behind my cup is to empower women to feel beautiful, confident, and powerful because we go through so much every single day of our lives, and what better way to enjoy your coffee than having one of these cups,” said Boateng.

Her booth will be open Friday, July 1, located in HALL C Booths # 4526 / 4528.

She also mentioned that she is also giving away 2 tickets to see Janet Jackson on Saturday at Caesars Superdome.