Long before today’s superstars brought spectacle to the stage, offering performance art as opposed to simply a performance, an incredible thing happened: A Black man descended upon a stage from a spaceship.
The man in question was George Clinton. The night in question: Oct. 27, 1976. The stage: The Municipal Auditorium in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans. The spacecraft: The Mothership.
Nearly 50 years later, Clinton, the Parliament-Funkadelic collective (aka, P-Funk), and The Mothership, will touch down once again in New Orleans. This time, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipients will land at the Caesars Superdome during Fourth of July weekend to close out the ESSENCE Festival of Culture® presented by Coca-Cola®. They will bring along some top-secret friends who will take to the stage to honor a monumental moment, an enduring movement, and what the future holds.
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“To celebrate George in New Orleans, where the Mothership first touched down, is a beautiful full-circle moment,” says Vivian Scott Chew, mastermind behind Chew Entertainment, which is set to produce the curated performance with David Rodriguez, executive producer at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Chew’s agency worked with Clinton on the 1996 Mothership landing, which took place at Central Park in New York City. “The weekend will be about more than music—it’s about community, legacy, and making space for the next generation to carry the funk forward.”
To prepare yourself, and to feel the full weight of what this event means, you must understand P-Funk, The Mothership, and the impact it has had on music and the culture.
Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic collective, with Parliament (originally The Parliaments, a New Jersey–bred doo-wop group) being the R&B and funk arm, and Funkadelic being the rock extension, embarked on a tour following the release of the Mothership Connection album in 1975. It spawned classics including “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker),” my personal favorite, “Star Child (Mothership Connection),” and introduced a new wave of music lovers to Afrofuturistic ideals, similar to fellow Afrofuturism pioneer and jazz composer Sun Ra before him. This movement is a form of science fiction that encapsulates the Black experience, envisioning a joyous, liberated alternative to the struggles of the past and present.
A Star Trek fan, Clinton wanted to take the cosmic sounds and bring them to the concert experience. So, it was only fitting that they have a spaceship. With the help of lighting designer Jules Fisher, late Broadway production designer Peter Larkin, and $500,000, the Mothership came to life. As Clinton recently told The New York Times, “I was getting ready to take the ‘hood into outer space.”
And so he began that mission in New Orleans, which wasn’t an easy feat to pull off. The late promoter Larry McKinley was integral in helping to make it happen. His daughter, Glenda McKinley, advertising executive behind GMc+Co. Advertising and McKinley Studios in New Orleans, remembers how significant her father believed the moment would be.
“Even though he was bringing in some of the biggest names in entertainment to New Orleans at the time, when he brought George Clinton and the Mothership, I recall it wasn’t just another show to him. It was something bigger,” Glenda, who cites “Give Up the Funk” as her favorite P-Funk song, tells ESSENCE. “I remember the energy around it.
“There was a sense that this was different. It wasn’t just a concert—it was an experience. I remember him talking about it in a way that made it feel larger than life, like he knew people were going to be blown away. He insisted the tour start and end in New Orleans.”
The show was an effort, as The Mothership was “massive” and there were a number of moving parts that weren’t typical of the concert experience at the time. But the result was the kickoff of a tour for the ages. “Once it came together, it delivered exactly what [Larry] believed it would,” Glenda says. “Something unforgettable.”
With the groove of “Star Child” playing, Glenn Goins singing “Swing down, sweet chariot, stop, and let me ride,” the Mothership would be summoned to the frenzy of fans. As P-Funk Earth Tour videos on YouTube reveal, sparklers lit up, lights beamed and steam bellowed as it came down on the stage. Shortly after, Clinton would arise in all his eclectic glory in front of the behemoth prop as Dr. Funkenstein, descending the stairs with a cane like a pimp exiting his Cadillac to perform the character’s eponymous song. The outlandish nature of the performances, from the stunning spacecraft to the costumes and sketches, is enthralling to view in the present day, and according to people who saw it live, it was even more captivating in person.
What Parliament-Funkadelic brought to the stage in New Orleans, and to the stops that followed, was liberation through art. That same liberation was felt by those who laid eyes on the stunning Mothership replica in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in D.C., partly inspiring the Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures exhibition that ran from 2023 to 2024.
And that liberation can certainly still be heard in the music of today. It has informed the work of the artists who have expanded the sound of funk, from the late Prince to Dr. Dre, Outkast to Childish Gambino, Janelle Monáe to Kendrick Lamar and more. All have cited Clinton and P-Funk as an influence on theirdecoding=”async” src=”https://media.essence.com/vxcjywbwpa/uploads/2026/03/George-Clinton-PIF.jpg” alt=”Funk Legend George Clinton To Celebrate 50 Years Of ‘The Mothership’ At ESSENCE Fest 2026″ width=”400″ height=”533″ />Karl Ferguson
That sound remains timeless, ensuring that the show Clinton, Parliament-Funkadelic, and friends, will put on at the Superdome in less than 100 days will resonate with the young and the seasoned funk devotees alike, just as it did nearly 50 years ago.
So, there is plenty to get excited about as ESSENCE Festival of Culture approaches. That includes a new version of the Mothership that’s currently being produced in Nashville. It will take off into the sky soon, landing, fittingly, at the Superdome on July 5, its first siting on what will kick off a worldwide tour.
The spectacle continues where it began. It will be a celebration of a groundbreaking sound, a trailblazing collective, and an extraordinary Festival that continues to stand, independently, as a haven for Black excellence.
Stay tuned. There’s more to come.
Tickets for the 2026 ESSENCE Festival of Culture® presented by Coca-Cola® Evening Concert Series are on sale now. Download the E360 app to plan your weekend experience, get exclusive offers and receive real-time updates. Follow @ESSENCEFest on X, Facebook, and Instagram to stay connected.
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Author: Victoria Uwumarogie
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