Youth steel on a positive note

ON JANUARY 18 and 19, TT's youth advanced, sticks raised, to create music in steelbands featuring both children at primary schools and young adults at secondary schools.

Despite concerns about moving the finals of the National Schools' Panorama to Skinner Park, San Fernando, on short notice, a robust number of schools declared their eligibility for preliminary judging, marking an important change in the competition.

The top 12 primary schools from the preliminaries of the national schools' competition and ten secondary schools' finalists comprise a cross-section of the country's schools, from Diego Martin to Penal.

The change to Skinner Park seemed to offer more opportunities for school bands outside San Fernando and Port of Spain, and more opportunities to encourage music performance and appreciation in their curricula should be pursued.

The number of bands that have rallied for these two days of competition also points to the viability of a youth steelband music festival separated from the pressures of Carnival to encourage music on pan for its own sake beyond the pursuit of trophies.

The under-21 and under-19 competition announced by Pan Trinbago for Sunday's finals – still at Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain – in response to the venue change was also spirited, representing a net gain for youths in music further stoking passion for the national instrument.

Amid these positive developments, there are issues that should have been quietly resolved.

On January 12, Pan Trinbago's president Beverly Ramsey-Moore blasted NCC chairman Peter Kanhai about problems with the design and execution of the stage at Skinner Park after instruments and two moko jumbies, leaving the stage, fell.

Fault was found with its design, a smooth surface and steep incline and a stage area that was simply too small for the small conventional bands crossing it. What was a problem for adult bands with experience in stage performance is unacceptable for the children who will perform on it.

The NCC must ensure that all appropriate steps have been taken, inclusive of additional stage support staff, to ensure the safety of minor players.

In the larger scale of the relationship between Pan Trinbago and the government, there is clearly more work that needs to be done to find common ground.

Culture Minister Michelle Benjamin has made much of the support given by her ministry to unsponsored steelbands, but the state has itself made five steelbands unsponsored with the withdrawal of sponsorship by the National Gas Company and Heritage Petroleum. Skiffle Bunch, Siparia Deltones, Couva Joylanders, La Brea Nightingales and Steel Xplosion found themselves without support at the end of 2025, just as they were beginning their Panorama preparations.

Reports that Sport Ministry PS David Nakhid boldly jumped out of his crease recently to confront Mrs Ramsey-Moore do not inspire confidence in any meaningful alignment of government promises for cultural support and the mixed messages of its reality.