Chief Sec: Tobago pan academy coming

THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine says preparatory work for Tobago’s first pan academy has begun.

He spoke at the fourth edition of the national Panorama Medium Conventional Band final at the Dwight Yorke Stadium, Bacolet, Tobago, on February 23.

Black Rock band Katzenjammers Steel Orchestra, which played the Mighty Sparrow’s (Slinger Francisco’s) Lying Excuses, won the competition for a third consecutive year. The song was arranged by Kersh Ramsey.

Augustine said the feasibility study for the pan academy was “well on its way and the curriculum is being organised as we speak.”

He also announced the band Steel Sensation will be given a land lease very soon.

“In this calendar year, we are also providing land support to Steel Sensation up at Plymouth, so they will have their land lease in hand very soon.”

Augustine said work on a permanent home for Scarborough band Uptown Fascinators is already on stream.

“We have completed design work for Uptown Fascinators that has been to and fro without a place of abode.”

He also announced that the newly paved drag at the Dwight Yorke Stadium will be named after Ventnor Hargraves, a pan historian and member of the Alpha Pan Pioneers and Our Boys bands.

Hargraves died during Carnival celebrations in February 2024.

“He died doing what he loved, so that drag that we have just installed will be named after him.”

On the initiatives, Augustine said, “We are not doing this just because we can. We are doing this because this is the steelpan and we understand and appreciate what it does for our development.”

He urged the audience to keep loving pan in and out of season, particularly to ensure small unsponsored pan sides “can continue to thrive on your energies.”

Augustine also praised Pan Trinbago’s vision to have pan placed strategically all across the country.

“It really helps in ensuring that young people all across the country, citizens all across the country, have an opportunity to actually enjoy the sweet sound of pan and to engage, in a very intimate way, with their favourite pan sides."

Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Randall Mitchell, meanwhile, believes the Katzenjammers’ victory in the medium band finals speaks volumes about the popularity and vibrancy of steelpan culture in Tobago and of the Black Rock community’s dedication to the steelpan movement.

After the victory, Mitchell told Newsday, “Katzenjammers delivered a thrilling and masterful performance, captivating the audience which was made up of locals and visitors alike.”

He also mentioned the success of the La Brea Nightingales, which placed fifth.

“Their rendition was infectious, their energy electric, and with each player demonstrating the passion required to thrill the audience and succeed, Kudos to them and cheers to the power of the steelpan movement.”

Mitchell was selected as the People’s National Movement’s candidate for La Brea in the general election, constitutionally due this year.