Nigel Teles­ford

In­ter­na­tion­al­ly-cel­e­brat­ed band of broth­ers and so­ca am­bas­sadors Kes the Band has made his­to­ry once again—this time as the first so­ca act to sell out two Sum­mer­Stage con­certs at Cen­tral Park in New York City with­in hours of go­ing on sale.

Set for Ju­ly 5 and 6, the back-to-back hows mark a ground­break­ing mo­ment not on­ly for Kees, but for the en­tire Caribbean mu­sic scene.

This Cen­tral Park show­ing will be Kes’ sec­ond ap­pear­ance at Sum­mer­Stage, fol­low­ing a sen­sa­tion­al 2024 de­but where his sin­gle show sold out with­in hours, leav­ing thou­sands of fans clam­our­ing for more. This year’s dou­ble book­ing is a tes­ta­ment to his soar­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty and grow­ing glob­al im­pact.

Com­ing off a record-break­ing run, Kees’ chart-top­ping sin­gle, “Co­coa Tea” con­tin­ues to dom­i­nate stream­ing plat­forms world­wide, while his elec­tri­fy­ing 2025 IzWe Fes­ti­val: Trinidad Car­ni­val Edi­tion in Feb­ru­ary drew mas­sive crowds and unit­ed cul­tures through rhythm and rev­el­ry.

The band’s in­ter­na­tion­al reach has al­so ex­pand­ed sig­nif­i­cant­ly, with two sold-out shows in Mon­tre­al dur­ing their 2024 tour in Cana­da, prov­ing that the love for so­ca knows no bor­ders.

Kes the Band cel­e­brates 20 years in the mu­sic in­dus­try this year and con­tin­ues to lead the charge for tak­ing so­ca on to the world stage—wav­ing the red, white, and black of Trinidad and To­ba­go with pride and par­tic­u­lar pur­pose.

“We’ve al­ways be­lieved in the pow­er of so­ca to bring peo­ple to­geth­er,” said lead singer, Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller.

“To see that vi­sion un­fold not just in Trinidad, but in New York, Cana­da, and be­yond—it’s deeply hum­bling. This mo­ment be­longs to all of us and de­serves a cel­e­bra­tion.”

Pre­sent­ed by Cap­i­tal One, Sum­mer­Stage is renowned for spot­light­ing dy­nam­ic tal­ent from across the globe. Kes’ back-to-back sold out shows not on­ly high­lights his un­matched show­man­ship, but al­so re­flects a larg­er cul­tur­al shift, as Caribbean mu­sic takes its right­ful place in the glob­al spot­light.

If you missed Kes the Band tick­ets for Cen­tral Park Sum­mer­Stage, you can al­so catch Kes the Band live at the fol­low­ing dates and lo­ca­tions:

· April 20 – To­ba­go - To­ba­go Rhythm and Soul Fes­ti­val

· April 27 – Kingston, Ja­maica - GenXs Road March

· April 30 – St Thomas UVI - St. Thomas Car­ni­val Vil­lage

· May 4 – Trinidad – Bedrock All In­clu­sive

· May 9 – Cay­man Is­lands – Fes­ti­val Green

· May 18 – St Pauls Bay, Mal­ta - Ibiza So­ca Fes­ti­val

· May 22 – Guyana - Sting­ing Net­tles

· May 24 – Or­lan­do, FL – So­ca Fest

· June 26 – St. Kitts – St Kitts Mu­sic Fes­ti­val

· June 28 – Bal­ti­more MD – Pier Six Pavil­lion

· Ju­ly 3 – Boston, MA – Leader Bank Pavil­lion

· Ju­ly 5 - New York, NY - Sum­mer­Stage Cen­tral Park

· Ju­ly 6 – New York, NY - Sum­mer­Stage Cen­tral Park

· Ju­ly 18 – Saint Lu­cia - Daren Sam­my Crick­et Sta­di­um

· Ju­ly 26 – Toron­to, Cana­da – IZWE

· Ju­ly 30 – St Michaels – Rise Bar­ba­dos

· Au­gust 9 - San­ta Ele­na, Be­lize - Be­lize In­ter­na­tion­al Mu­sic and Food Fes­ti­val

a