Program Thursday 28 August

These acts have been confirmed. The timetable will be announced later.

Gilberto Santa Rosa

Nicknamed “El Caballero de la Salsa” (The Gentleman of Salsa), Gilberto Santa Rosa is a Puerto Rican bandleader and singer of salsa and bolero. Having grown up listening to the salsa of the 1950s and 1960s, he started performing in his teens and began as a backup singer before moving on to become the lead singer in several orchestras. Developing his style so he could sing both tropical and romantic salsa, Santa Rosa made his solo recording debut in the 1980s and released a whole string of successful albums. Perspectiva (1991), Esencia (1996), and Auténtico (2004) are some of his landmark records. He is a six-time Grammy Award winner and has sold over three million records in the United States and Puerto Rico. His latest two albums are 2022’s Debut y Segunda Tanda, Vol. 1 and its sequel, Debut y Segunda Tanda, Vol. 2, which was released in 2024.

Kool & The Gang

Get ready to boogie, ‘cause the gang are here! Kool & the Gang, that is. The band formed in the mid-60s when brothers Robert and Ronald Bell founded a band with some friends in their native New Jersey. They started out as an instrumental band and played jazz, then explored many musical styles and band names before settling on Kool & the Gang in 1969. Although achieving some fame with their fourth album and when their song Open Sesame was included on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, their real break-through came when they enlisted a dedicated lead singer and began making mainstream pop with catchy hooks. The hit singles kept flowing: Ladies’ Night, Celebration, Get Down On It, Let's Go Dancin' (Ooh La La La), Joanna, Cherish… It made the band one of the leading funk/disco bands of the late 1970s and well into the mid-1980s. Still making people dance to this day, Kool & the Gang were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2024.