Kompa takes the Creole festival stage: Klass opened, Tabou Combo plays tonight in Dominica

The 26th World Creole Music Festival runs October 23–25 at Windsor Park Sports Stadium in Roseau, Dominica, in the middle of Creole Month — and this year's lineup carries a strong Haitian accent across all three nights. Klass opened the Haitian contingent on Friday, October 23, and tonight, Saturday, Tabou Combo takes the stage on a bill headlined by Ne-Yo.

Tabou Combo, founded in 1968 in Pétion-Ville, is one of the bands that carried kompa from Haiti to the world's stages — from Paris to New York to Montreal — and nearly six decades later it remains one of the genre's flagship acts, its horn-driven sound a signature of Haitian music itself.

Haitian-American singer Fridayy closes the festival's Haitian presence on Sunday night, completing a weekend in which Haiti's music holds a headline place at the Caribbean's biggest Creole gathering — a reminder, in a hard season, of what Haiti gives the world.