(MOORESTOWN, NJ) -- Perkins Center for the Arts (395 King's Highway) in Moorestown will present a free, outdoor concert and all ages dance party on their picturesque lawn on Tuesday, July 11, 2023 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. The event will feature Colombian cumbia music.

Cumbia band Viva Vallenato! performs the electrifying folk music of Colombia and Latin America. This music, the dance moves and costumes capture the alegria and the cultural memory of a people with roots in Africa, the Andes, and Europe. Band leaders Hugo and Josefina will lead a workshop on cumbia dancing before the performance.

The World Stage: Dance it Out Series uses dance as a universal language to feature cultural performances from various regions worldwide.

These events are family-friendly, pet-friendly, BYOC “Bring Your Own Chair,” and support emerging and established artists. Concerts will be held rain or shine, thanks to the covered stage. This year’s World Stage concerts will have a dance floor, giving guests of all ages a place to groove to the music.

Since 2013, Viva Vallenato! Cumbia Band has been electrifying crowds with the classic folkloric music of Colombia, South America.  77-year old lead singer & percussionist Hugo Lascarro Sr. hails from the city of Barranquilla, Colombia where he performed for many years. His son Hugo Jr. sings and plays traditional handmade Colombian drums, the caja vallenata and tambora costeña. Bassist & Singer Jose Borney hails from Tolima, Colombia, a richly musical region where he is a local music star. New Jersey native Accordionist Phil “Felipe” “Caballo” Passantino formed the band after falling in love with this rich music: vallenato, the local storytelling songs of Colombia’s Atlantic coast, sung over shimmering accordions and pulsating rhythms; and Colombian cumbia, a hypnotic courtship dance created in cultural exchange between indigenous cultures and escaped African slaves. Salvatore Carollo brings the thunder on the red hot timbales, and he will make sure you’re dancing!

Viva Vallenato! have been featured by Univision, Telemundo, WPIX News, New York Post, Associated Press, Telecafe TV (Colombia), Telecaribe TV (Colombia), Telepacifico TV (Colombia), WKCR-FM, & Radio WADO-AM, Musikfest (Bethlehem PA), Flurry Festival of Music & Dance (Saratoga Springs NY), Music Under New York City, First Night Morristown NJ, the City of Philadelphia, New York’s “Accordions Around The World” Festival, and dozens of public libraries in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. Their debut album “Dance Music of Colombia” was released in 2019.

Perkins Center for the Arts is a regional, multi-disciplinary arts education center with locations in Moorestown and Collingswood, New Jersey. With a mission to enrich lives, inspire life-long learning, and cultivate intercultural experiences, Perkins Center for the Arts offers a music conservatory, visual and performing arts classes, exhibitions, concerts, artist-led school residency programs, summer camp, Folklife Center, and community enrichment projects.