Kes The Band successfully staged an entertaining, engaging and socially-distanced concert series recently, whilst also bringing elements of Carnival 2021 to life and celebrating our annual festival with around 1500 fans and supporters at the scaled-down and socially-distanced "IzWe" concert series. For 5 nights from Tuesday February 9th to Saturday 13th, the 2020 Soca Monarch and Road March Kings reigned supreme at Sound Forge in St James, alongside a slew of surprise and special guest acts and collaborators.
 
Held in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism with support from corporate partners such as: Digicel, Republic Bank, TT Ride Share, Nestle (T&T), Sound Forge, Truss US Ltd., Carib Beer and Guardian Media Limited, the series featured up close and personal performances from Kes, as well as top acts like Calypso Queen, Terri Lyons; 2021 Soca Monarch and Road March King, Farmer Nappy; Jazz musician, Etienne Charles; Chutney Crossover hitmaker, Ravi B; X-Factor finalist, Olatunji Yearwood; Soca Queen, Patrice Roberts; son of Calypso Legend "Lord Kitchener", Kernal Roberts and joint 2020 title winner, Neil Iwer George with special collaborator, KMC.
 
In strict compliance with The Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 Theatre Guidelines of 50% capacity, each night of KTB’s performance was open to only 300 patrons. The culminating performance on Saturday, February 13 was aired live on local television in Trinidad & Tobago and on affiliates across the Caribbean. 
Fans outside the region were able to livestream the concert at KES’ website, kestheband.com at a cost of just US$10. The live stream was made available at no cost within the Caribbean.

Lead singer, Kees Dieffenthaller explained that with Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival festivities on pause in 2021, the band decided to re-brand and extend its Carnival season event to multiple nights of live music. This was decided in order to accommodate more fans, while keeping within the maximum gathering size, strictly in compliance with the Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 Regulations. He said:

“IzWe is a presentation of WE culture in all its different aspects... We’ll be celebrating the essence of who we all are as Caribbean people. It all began with drums and fire and, out of the revolution of our ancestors, Carnival which came to be the sweetest revolution. As such, we are celebrating our light in these dark times.”

 
 
 
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