Kes takes soca to Essence Festival

Kes The Band is set to make history this weekend as the only Caribbean act selected to perform at the 26th Essence Festival of Culture on June 26.

Known as "the party with a purpose," the annual festival began in 1995 as a one-time event to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Essence magazine, which is aimed primarily towards African-American women. Subsequently, it became the largest African-American culture and music event in the United States.

For Kes The Band, the festival represents a golden opportunity to showcase its musicians' talents as well as the vibes of Trinidad and Tobago to a captive, significant and influential American audience.

In a media release, Kees Dieffenthaller, leader of Kes The Band, said, "Our mission has always been to spread the music and vibrations as far and wide as possible. Being a part of the Essence Fest line-up this year gives us the opportunity to share our energy through the music and culture of our beautiful islands, Trinidad and Tobago. So we want everyone to log on, get up and dance and enjoy the infectious energy of soca and calypso music."

The Essence Fest Talent Team of Loreal Lemond, Ashaunna Ayers and Jameel Spencer said they targeted talent that was representative of artistes' country and genre.

"Our goal for this year's festival was to procure talent and creatives globally, who represent their communities – and in this case their country and genre – in a way that is aligned with Essence Festival's mission and purpose.

So why exactly was Kes The Band chosen to perform on Saturday night?

"Essence is always on a mission to celebrate all aspects of black culture and we are happy to have Kes represent for the international community with a performance that will surely make his home country proud!” Essence Fest's VP of experiential, branded content and video, Stephanie Dunivan, said in the release.

While 2020 sidelined live music, Kes The Band remained creative and continued to open doors for soca music amidst the pandemic and produced and presented three livestreamed concerts in 2020 and were featured in several mainstream media outlets in the US and the UK in the lead-up to those performances. In February this year the band staged its IzWe concert at Sound Forge in St James.

Now, with the virus seemingly at bay to a greater extent in the US and elsewhere, the band is gearing up to resume its mission of bringing its music globally.

Damon DeGraff of the band's management team said, "We had a fabulous tour planned but the universe clearly had other plans for everyone and we took the extra downtime to not only push the envelope in terms of livestreaming presentations, but to also craft a new body of work which we consider to be the soundtrack of the future."

The virtual festival takes place over two weekends of music, entertainment and empowerment from June 25-27 and July 2-4.

The Essence Fest performance line-up also includes notable names such as DJ Khaled and friends, Davido, Jasmine Sullivan, D-NICE, NeYo and others.

To view Kes The Band's groundbreaking performance at Essence Festival from 7-10 pm, log on to www.essencestudios.com