¡Sabor! Latin Festival Returns to SteelStacks June 23-25

Free Concerts by Kiko Rodriguez & Herman Olivera Highlight Three Days of Music, Food and Family Fun

June 6, 2017

Three days of music, food and family fun including free concerts by Bachata star Kiko Rodriguez and salsa singer Herman Olivera highlight the seventh-annual ¡Sabor! Latin Festival June 23-25 at SteelStacks. The weekend will also feature arts and crafts, children’s activities, Latin dance presentations, a Mariachi Mass and free screening of the film “We Like It Like That” at the ArtsQuest Center’s Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas.

On June 23, 8 p.m., ¡Sabor! welcomes salsa singer Herman Olivera to the Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks stage. In a genre overrun by pop-oriented singers, this artist’s musicality and mastery have garnered him the title of “Sonero of the 21st Century.” Today, he is among the most in-demand and hardworking salsa singers around. His voice literally permeates the sound of hard-hitting salsa from the 1980s to the present, with album credits with the likes of Tito Puente and Eddie Palmieri, among many others.

The following evening, June 24, 8 p.m., Kiko Rodriguez will perform at the Levitt Pavilion. This Bachata star and Dominican native’s singles such as “El Verde de Tus Ojos” and “Ya Te Olvide” introduced him to a large audience through tropical radio both stateside and abroad, and he’s since toured throughout the Caribbean, Europe and the United States. His fourth studio album, “Directo al Corazon,” proved to be a breakthrough success, with a long string of singles now to his credit.

Other performers at ¡Sabor! include Puerto Rican Institute of Music Jibaro Ensemble, East Coast Salsa Scene, DJ Ju5tin, Nitschmann Middle School Step Team, Fabricio Orihuela, Anaïsa, Grupo En Secuencia and Hector Rosado Orchestra. Also returning this year is the late-night dance party “Reggaeton Night” on the TD Bank Community Stage featuring high energy musicians El Elegido and Bolo Flow & Friends June 23, 11 p.m.-12:30 a.m.

Other ¡Sabor! highlights include:
-Delicious food for purchase including tacos, pastelillos and Portuguese doughnuts prepared by Holy Infancy Roman Catholic Church and pinchos (pork and chicken), rice with chicken and beans, and empanadillas made by the Hogar Crea Women’s Center.
-A traditional Latin mass in the ArtsQuest Center Fowler Blast Furnace Room June 25, 10-11 a.m., featuring regional mariachi band Mariachi Maya.
-A free screening of the film “We Like It Like That” in the Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas June 25, 11:30 a.m.
Starring Latin boogaloo legends like Joe Bataan, Johnny Colon and Pete Rodriguez, “We Like It Like That” explores an era of Latin music history through original interviews, music recordings, live performances, dancing and rare archival footage and images.

A celebration of the region’s Latino culture, ¡Sabor! features live music by local, regional and national musical acts, as well as cultural programming presented by community organizations such as the Hispanic American League of Artists (HALA), Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley, Borinqueneers and Latin American Motorcycle Association. The festival is an outreach program of the ¡Sabor! Cultural Committee, which includes representatives from the region’s Latino community including Hispanic American League of Artists, Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley, Panorama and La Mega Radio.

The ¡Sabor! Latin Festival is made possible thanks to the support of TD Bank, B. Braun, Modelo, Corona, LANta, Metro PCS, HGSK Law Firm, Urban Varieties and Cohen, Feeley, Altemose & Rambo.