Panmen still face same issues

San Fernando Mayor and CEO of CAL Skiffle Bunch Junia Regrello.
San Fernando Mayor and CEO of CAL Skiffle Bunch Junia Regrello.

SAN FERNANDO Mayor Junia Regrello says the financial difficulties the pan fraternity is facing may very well be a blessing in disguise. He said this situation provides an opportunity for the fraternity to revisit what they have been doing over the decades and restructure in order to move forward.

“We are going around in circles, spending large sums. Panorama started in 1963 and in 2019, we still have some of the same problems. We have not really evolved as we should have. We have not sat down and studied this event as a single event. Pulled it out of the equation and treat with Panorama as a separate issue. We go through the same rhetoric every year, same argument, same quarrel,” Regrello said.

As the conversation centres around the scaling down of prize money so panmen can get the remittance they have been enjoying since 1997, Regrello reiterated that the players’ incentive was an initiative of BWIA, when it was a sponsor and PanTrinbago capitalised on it.

“We abused that privilege and now we are talking about between $7 to $8 million every year going into the players purse and now they are making it an issue.” Regrello, the CEO of CAL Skiffle said this has to be restructured in a way as an incentive to make players work hard to win or place in the top spots in the competitions.

He suggested that the new PanTrinbago president Beverly Ramsey-Moore and her executive revisit having the single-pan bands inside of the Panorama and look at removing the medium band competition from the finals and letting the large bands stand on its own, so the competition does not have to drag on until 3 to 4 am the next day. He said the medium band competition could be held separately.

PAN ELDERS ON HARD TIMES

“People get tired. Bands from San Fernando and deep south reach home from Panorama finals about 6 am the next day and most of us are engaged in other activities on the Sunday and Monday.” He said consideration should be also be given to the timing factor, starting at an earlier time like they did when the National Panorama was held in San Fernando in 2007 and 2008.

“We started at 5 pm so it became like a picnic and outing for patrons who came in by five and panorama was finished by midnight. Patrons could have gone home to get a proper rest for the next day or go to another fete if they chose to. Having the final competition in San Fernando gave us an opportunity to repackage the programme and I wish the Ramsey-Moore executive could look at what we did and maybe implement some of those ideas in terms of time and money factors.”

Over the weekend, leader of the five-time medium band champion Pan Elders, Hollister Smith, spoke about its struggle now that it was no longer benefitting from financial support of the former State-owned oil company Petrotrin. Smith said without corporate assistance, plans to successfully defend its title may be in jeopardy.

$$ OWED FOR 2018

Regrello said a meeting is scheduled with the chairman of the PanTrinbago South Central zone, Philip Barker, and his executive later this week to discuss plans for Panorama 2019 and the difficult financial position some bands are now facing. Regrello has pledged to do what he can to assist these bands

“The corporation does not have the resources to sponsor bands. We do assist the San City Steel Orchestra but outside of that, our Act does not allow us to make those kinds of investment.” As mayor, he feels that sense of responsibility to assist the bands, most of them unsponsored, which falls within the city.

“I will use my office to call companies and do what I can to assist. I don’t know what the response would be as most of the companies are trying to overcome their own financial challenges, but I believe once there is a will there must be a way.”

Regrello said the San Fernando Carnival Committee is still owing the steelbands from 2018 as the $400,000 allocation it received last year to run the San Fernando Carnival was insufficient to pay all debts or prize monies. He said he has had discussion with the National Carnival Commission (NCC) but is not sure what his allocation would be this year or how the city will manage the festival if the budget is chopped.

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