Concerts in the Park returns in May. See Xzibit and Sacramento’s own Aaron Le

The 32nd annual Concerts in the Park series makes its return to Cesar Chavez Plaza in downtown Sacramento beginning in May.

The city’s live music series, presented by the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, is a prelude to summer, bringing Sacramento natives and visitors together to celebrate and support the local talent produced in Sacramento.

The weekly, fun-in-the-sun outing is a free jamboree every Friday, for nine weeks, beginning May 2 and running through late June. Gates open at 6 p.m. and the music ends at 9:30 p.m.

The summer series features a variety of Grammy-winning artists, DJs, Sacramento legends and up-and-coming artists. This year the city welcomes acts like rapper Xzibit, rock duo Phantogram and American reggae rock band, The Expendables.

The full list, which includes over 35 artists, can be found on the Downtown Sacramento Partnership website.

One of the biggest dreams

Sacramento native Aaron Le, an R&B singer, joins the list of talent who will grace the stage at Cesar Chavez Plaza during the concert series. Le will perform May 16, along with Yoni, Basi Vibe, singer and DJ Eddy, headlined by Khloe Rose.

Le, 26, is performing at Concerts in the Park for the first time, and said he had a big smile on his face when he found out he was finally selected as an act after being denied so many times.

“Being an artist from Sacramento, that’s one of the biggest dreams,” Le said. “One of the biggest goals is to be able to be on a Concerts in the Park lineup. It was an unreal feeling, like we finally made it, but at the same time, there’s still a long way to go.”

Le balances his music career with a part-time job and a pursuit of education, taking classes at Sacramento City College with plans to transfer to Sacramento State and major in business administration.

Seeing recent success

Recently, Le has made waves in Sacramento and beyond after he posted a TikTok in January that featured a snippet of a song called “Sactown,” which he said is inspired by Lloyd’s 2004 song “Southside,” featuring Ashanti.

“It was sitting in the vault for a really long time,” Le said of making the song a few years ago calling it an interpolation of Lloyd’s hit. “It has nostalgia because everybody that you know knows the song (“Southside”) and it brings back that type of feeling of 2000s R&B, right? But then also to people that don’t know the song, they’re like, ‘this is catchy.’”

Le isn’t a newbie in the music industry. He’s been recording music since he was a junior in high school at 16 years old. His catalog includes songs with artists such as MarMar Oso, Beeda Weeda, Keak da Sneak and Mistah F.A.B.

He’s enjoyed his journey so far, rocking stages from small venues, such as nightclubs, to even having a brief performance at Rolling Loud.

Proud of his heritage and music

Le said he’s proud to balance the life of an artist while continuing to pursue his education beyond high school, especially as a son of first-generation immigrants.

“Being Asian-American, my parents wanted me to go to school,” he said. “They came from Vietnam to a whole other country for us to have a better lifestyle, perhaps to have better opportunities that they weren’t granted with.”

When Le told his parents that he wanted to be an artist, it wasn’t necessarily ideal to them.

“They’re finally starting to see everything come to fruition,” he said. “All the years that I’ve sacrificed and put in days, they started to see it now, but even then, they still remind me to this day, like, that’s great and all, but we still want you to finish school and get a good job.”

Le said he intends to “continue to ride this wave” and release another song along with a six-track EP in May.

“I’m proud to be where I’m at now,” he said. “I’m proud of myself to be able to still do what I need to do to make them proud. But also focus on my passion … being an Asian-American artist, doing what I do and representing the city, I think that’s something that I’m very proud of.”

This story was originally published April 18, 2025 at 11:13 AM.