So­ca mu­sic is fi­nal­ly free to make the world hap­py again and 2020 Road March Champs, Kes The Band are set to make his­to­ry this week­end, as the on­ly Caribbean act se­lect­ed to per­form on Sat­ur­day night at the 26th Essence Fes­ti­val of Cul­ture.

Known as "the par­ty with a pur­pose", The Essence Fes­ti­val is an an­nu­al mu­sic fes­ti­val which be­gan in 1995 as a one-time event to cel­e­brate the 25th an­niver­sary of Essence mag­a­zine - a pop­u­lar pub­li­ca­tion aimed pri­mar­i­ly to­wards African-Amer­i­can women.

Sub­se­quent­ly, the Essence Fes­ti­val be­came the largest African-Amer­i­can cul­ture and mu­sic event in the Unit­ed States.

For the band of broth­ers from Trinidad, the fes­ti­val rep­re­sents a gold­en op­por­tu­ni­ty to show­case their tal­ents as well as the "vibes" of Trinidad and To­ba­go to a cap­tive, sig­nif­i­cant and in­flu­en­tial Amer­i­can au­di­ence:

"Our mis­sion has al­ways been to spread the mu­sic and vi­bra­tions as far and wide as pos­si­ble," said lead vo­cal­ist, Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller.

"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.

"Our goal for this year's fes­ti­val," ex­plained Lo­re­al Lemond, Ashaunna Ay­ers and Jameel Spencer of the Essence Fest Tal­ent Team, "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 cho­sen to per­form on Sat­ur­day night then? Well, it's the vibe of course!

"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!” Stat­ed Essence Fest's VP Ex­pe­ri­en­tial, Brand­ed Con­tent & Video, Stephanie Duni­van.

While 2020 side­lined live mu­sic, the band of broth­ers re­mained cre­ative and con­tin­ued to open doors for So­ca mu­sic amidst the pan­dem­ic, as they pro­duced and pre­sent­ed three live stream­ing con­certs in 2020 and were fea­tured on sev­er­al main­stream me­dia out­lets in the US and the UK in the lead up to those afore­men­tioned con­cert per­for­mances.

Now, with the virus seem­ing­ly at bay to a greater ex­tent, the band is gear­ing up to re­sume their mis­sion of bring­ing their mu­sic glob­al­ly.

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

The Essence Fest per­for­mance line­up in­cludes no­table names such as DJ Khaled and friends, Davi­do, Jas­mine Sul­li­van, Jhene Aiko, NeYo and oth­ers. To wit­ness Kes' ground­break­ing per­for­mance at Essence Fes­ti­val this Sat­ur­day night from 7-10 pm, fans can log on to www.essences­tu­dios.com