(Corrected, 3 p.m.)
PROVIDENCE – Multi-genre music festival Providence Sound Session will continue into its eighth year July 8 to 10, under new leadership from Providence Inner City Arts.
The weekend will feature a packed schedule of concerts at Roots Café, Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel and the Bank of America skating rink in Kennedy Plaza, as well as other performances and educational programs.
Bobby Sanabria and Ascensión, Stephen Marley and Ghetto Youths Crew, Toby Foyeh and Orchestra Africa and Providence’s own AS220 Criss Cross Orchestra will all headline. James Brown tribute band Mr. Dynamite and the James Brown Review will also perform.
Sound Session aims to bring musicians from a variety of genres and cultures who reflect the diversity of Providence.
This year’s three-day event, a scaled-down version of past festivals, will be PICA’s first attempt to fill the Sound Session shoes.
Since its 2004 start by Providence Black Repertory Company founder Donald King, Sound Session has expanded into an annual weeklong festival culminating in a parade from Waterplace Park to Westminster Street.
Sound Session cost around $200,000 in previous years, with the price tag divided between private sponsors and the city. The Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism and the city are sponsoring the Kennedy Plaza stage for this year’s event.
PICA stepped in last winter to fill the void left on Westminster Street after the Black Rep, Sound Session’s original host, went into receivership. Three local residents — Len and Ali Cabral and Herman “Buddy” Snead — purchased the former Black Rep building and leased it to PICA to establish the Root’s Café, which opened March 6.
PICA hopes to establish Sound Session as an “important” regional event in the next five years.
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Correction: an earlier version of this article said it was the Sound Session’s seventh year.
