Essence Festival is taking the blame for Lauryn Hill's set being delayed until the wee hours of Friday night (July 4), when she ended up touching the New Orleans Superdome stage after 2:30 a.m. ET first thing Saturday morning.

After Lauryn Hill closed out the opening night of Essence Festival in the wee hours of Saturday morning, festival organizers shouldered blame for the delay. On Sunday, Essence shared a statement in defense of the 8x Grammy winner,

Essence Festival organizers have taken responsibility for a concert that ran so far behind schedule that Lauryn Hill wound up taking the stage at around 2:30 in the morning. Delays completely derailed the opening day of the 31st annual event,