When:Saturday October 3, 2026 - 7:30pm (doors open at 7pm)
Where: Royal Canadian Legion - Br 129 - 719 Mountain St., Haliburton, ON, K0M 1S0
Tickets: $40, $35 for HCFS members and students, $45 at the door. Children and Youth 18 & under are free. Children 12 & under must be accompanied by an adult. Tickets must be obtained online to reserve a ticket for Children and youth.
KOBO TOWN
Founded and fronted by émigré Trinidadian songwriter Drew Gonsalves, Kobo Town’s music has been variously described as “an intoxicating blend of lilting calypsonian wit, dancehall reggae and trombone-heavy brass” (Guardian) and a “unique, transnational composite of rhythm, poetry and activist journalism.”(Exclaim!) From their home in Toronto, the JUNO-nominated group has brought their distinct calypso-inspired sound to audiences across the world, from Port-of-Spain to Paris and from Montreal to Malaysia.
At once brooding and joyous, intensely poetic and highly danceable, Gonsalves' songs betray deep roots in Caribbean folk music, while the band delivers them with an indomitable energy that has earned them a considerable following far beyond the niche of world music enthusiasts and calypso fans.
Kobo Town is named after the historic neighborhood in Port-of-Spain where calypso was born amid the boastful, humorous and militant chants of roaming stick-fighters. Situated near the fishermen's wharf, the area was a site of constant defiance and conflict, a place where sticks and stones, songs and verses clashed with the bayonets and batons of colonial rule.
Gonsalves grew up in a middle class neighborhood in Diego Martin, a town just outside of Trinidad’s biggest city, Port of Spain.
When he was 13, Drew, his mother, and his siblings left for Ottawa, Canada. The sudden move to a new (and cold) world where he didn’t fit in led Gonsalves to cultivate a deep nostalgia for the land of his birth. “My curiosity about Trinidad led me to read a lot about the Caribbean and its history, the kind of legacy it bestowed upon us. When I first returned to Trinidad I was eighteen and I went back to visit my father for the summer. Going back with older eyes, I was more able to place in context all of the things that I took for granted when I was growing up.”
Gonsalves started writing his own calypsos and visiting calypso tents every time he visited Trinidad. In 2004, he put together Kobo Town with some fellow Trini expats in Toronto. The band's 2006 debut Independence received a warm reception and quickly made the band a crowd favourite on the festival circuit. When Gonsalves was introduced to Belizean producer Ivan Duran (who runs the label and production company Stonetree) the two musicians found that they shared a desire to revive the folkloric music of the West Indies by taking it in new creative directions.
While Gonsalves' writing and Duran's production have earned praise with critics, some traditionalists carp about the new elements Gonsalves included in his music. “I’m not sure I should call it calypso,” he says. “It is calypso inspired and derived, but it’s a conscious departure from the way it developed back home. Calypso is the folk music of urban Trinidad, but it has always drawn on outside influences, from big band and jazz in the 30s and 40s, to funk and disco in the 70s and 80s. It’s hard to pin down pure calypso. For me, the calypsonian is a singing newspaperman commenting on the events of the day, with an attitude halfway between court jester and griot.”
