Prince Fans Honor His Legacy With Celebrations

Prince fans all over the world will honor Prince’s life on Friday, April 21, 2017, the one-year anniversary of his death. When Prince died last year, fans around the world were shocked and photos of him rocked the social media world. One year later, Prince’s fans have not forgotten him.

Fans of Prince in his home town Chanhassen, a suburb of Minneapolis, will be celebrating in a big way. There are many ways that Prince’s fans can take part in the celebrations, whether they want to spend a lot of money or have very little to spend during the four days of events. They can get involved in the performances at Prince’s home, which has turned into a museum for all things Prince related, or they can check out the street party at First Avenue. This is the club that was made famous in the movie, Purple Rain, Prince starred in. There will also be a special exhibit for fans of Prince at the Minnesota History Center.

Paisley Park, the place that Prince called home and the place where he did all of his recording, will be the biggest attraction for his fans. There will be performances from the artists that made up his old band, The Revolution. There will also be music performed by Time and New Power Generation and Morris Day. As well, Lisa Coleman, Wendy Melvoin, and others from his old band will speak in a series of panel discussions.

This is the event that all Prince fans wanted to be at and despite the high ticket cost of the event – $999 – tickets for VIP passes have already sold out. There were still some general admission passes available mid-week for only $549.

Prince fans who could not afford the high ticket event can plan on attending the all-night dance party in Golden Valley, which is hosted by Prince’s siblings. They can expect to see performers like Apollonia Kotero, Dez Dickerson, and others who were close to him.

Other public events will be held at the dance club, First Avenue, which is in downtown Minneapolis or the memorial street party outside the club. Famous tracks by Prince will be played all night long and his fans can gather together to sing, cry, and celebrate his life.

As mentioned, the Minnesota History Center in St.Paul will have various Prince items on display, including the Purple Rain costume that he made famous in the movie. Only Prince could have ever pulled off that white ruffled shirt with the purple jacket and the studded pants. NBC New York says that another feature will be the “handwritten lyrics to an unreleased song, “I Hope We Work It Out,” signed by Prince in 1977, which was performed for Warner Bros. executives when he first signed with them.

Landmarks in Minneapolis will also pay homage to Prince. Landmarks like the Target Field, Interstate 35W, the U.S. Bank Stadium, the IDS Center, and the Lowry Avenue bridges will be lit up in purple to remember Prince. This is similar to how major buildings in cities all over the U.S. lit up in memory of Prince when he passed away last year.

Earlier in the year, there were plans to release an EP of Prince’s unreleased work, but it won’t be happening on Friday, much to the disappointment of his fans. However, Prince fans have been snapping up his other released works over the year to the extent that Prince has been the biggest selling musical artist of 2016. According to Billboard, Prince’s previous works “sold a combined 7.7 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music, through the week ending April 13.” Prince’s albums reached 2.23 million in sales last year – surpassing even Adele who had 2.21 million in album sales.

How will you be celebrating Prince’s life on April 21, 2017? Will you check out some of Prince’s just released new music on iTunes or will you have a larger, more public celebration with your friends?

[Featured Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for NCLR]