Essence Music Festival this weekend

Here's some advice: Unless you're attending the Essence Music Festival this weekend, you might want to avoid the Essence Music Festival. That's because more than 200,000 people may come to the three-day festival, being held in Houston for the first time this year. We just don't think Reliant Park-area traffic will be any fun.

The EMF started in New Orleans in 1994 to mark the 25th anniversary of Essence magazine. Since then, it's grown into a series of concerts, seminars and a marketplace offering clothing, art and jewelry. Last year, the festival drew 232,000 people, but it's unclear how many people will attend this year since the event's post-Katrina move to Houston. Rooms at about 50 hotels have been set aside for festival attendees, but even that's not a good measure of attendance, because many people are staying outside the hotel block.

Though Houston is pushing to keep the EMF, it's unknown how well the city will be as a host. "The two cities are very different," Louis Edwards, associate producer of promotions with Festival Production Inc.-New Orleans, which helps produce the festival, told the Chronicle. "Houston is a much larger city. In New Orleans, we're relying on people traveling to the city. In Houston, the base is so much larger. We won't know until it's done."

Tickets for the festival, which runs Saturday through Monday, are available through TicketMaster.