CAL sponsors Skiffle

Skiffle Steel Orchestra captain Joshua Regrello has described the Caribbean Airlines (CAL) sponsorship as a “miracle” which should enable the San Fernando side to bring the Panorama large band title to the southern city.

The airline proudly proclaimed its sponsorship of the band in a full page advertisement yesterday. The band is now called Caribbean Airlines Skiffle Steel Orchestra.

Two weeks ago Caribbean Airlines via a media release advised that its sponsorship of Invaders Steel Orchestra had ended. The airline stated that “an offer was made by Caribbean Airlines for 2018 sponsorship in the amount of $400,000.00, which is just over ten per cent less than the $450,000.00 paid for sponsorship in 2017.

“Unfortunately, this figure was not acceptable to Invaders who were requesting $800,000.00 an almost 80 per cent increase over the 2017 sum.” CAL added Invaders’ management had indicated “they had an additional sponsor, and could only offer Caribbean Airlines, shared sponsorship, or title sponsorship until March 2018.”

CAL said the airline was unable to meet such a large increase to cost of sponsorship and was unable to improve on its offer.

In its statement, CAL wished Invaders success and re-affirmed its commitment to support local culture and the arts as far as the resources available to it could reasonably allow.

Invaders Steel Orchestra has since announced a new sponsorship deal with Shell.

Interviewed yesterday, Regrello said the coincidence between the CAL sponsorship of Skiffle Steel Orchestra and its results in the pan yards judging preliminaries were striking and hoped this was indicative of future success.

“This is a miracle and we are grateful for it and we just hope that with the partnership we are able to soar together,” he said, adding, “I really hope that this year in particular we would be able to use that partnership and what we have been doing so far to bring the Panorama back to south.”

Meanwhile, San Fernando Mayor Junia Regrello, who had previously captained Skiffle, welcomed CAL’s sponsorship and hoped that other corporate organisations would also support south based bands.

“I am very pleased that CAL has brought their support to San Fernando and more corporate bodies should look at south bands. There are a lot of south bands who are in the minority and have been performing well over the years.”

Skiffle is scheduled to participate in the National Panorama semifinals for medium and large bands today.

The band recorded its highest score in its history to place overall second behind Renegades in the National Panorama preliminary large conventional band category.