2018 parang season ends on a high note

THE 2018 parang season ended on a festive note with the National Parang Association’s final performance, Lewah, held at its headquarters in Arima on Saturday.

The 2018 festival was launched on September 29 and ended Saturday. The theme of the festival was From Nazareth to Bethlehem.

Although the event was full of energy, the turnout of patrons was small.

Newly installed president of the NPATT, Alicia Jagessar the association continues in its quest to become relevant by creating revenue-generating activities and opportunities to keep existing members and attract new ones.

“The preservation of one of the oldest traditions is our mandate. We now look forward to our first ever CarniParang Tent, where visitors, who missed Christmas, can experience parang with a twist.

She also said the tent will showcase band’s versatility in performing other types of music, including calypso and soca.

This will be followed by Easter parang.

According to Jaggasar, the 2019 festival would be themed, O Come All Ye Faithful, which would see the association calling on parang lovers to help.

"We will also be hoping for an increase in the subvention (to the association) and increased financial support from government, as we work together for the incorporation of this artform to the cultural mainstream in TT," she said.

Jagessar said increasing patronage at shows has been difficult because of the association’s financial limitations.

“ Our marketing was limited as this comes with a high cost. Our cash-in-hand to run a million dollar festival was limited to the financial contribution of the Ministry of Community Development Culture and the Arts and the goodwill of corporate Trinidad, private citizens and members.

“We will continue to knock on all doors for support."

Despite the challenges, Jaggasar said, "2018 was a very successful year as we managed to increase our numbers not to the point of financial profit but our profits came from an increased awareness and increased sponsorship interest. We also saw the coming together of our parranderos to ensure that festival 2018 From Nazareth to Bethlehem became a reality.

Our junior parang was a huge success and we are looking forward to even more schools participating in 2019."

Also on NPATT's executive are vice-president Valarie Marcano, secretary Roxanne Marcano, assistant secretary Arlene La Vaughn and PRO Cassell George.