Three stal­wart cul­tur­al or­gan­i­sa­tions got to­geth­er on De­cem­ber 20 to host a 50th an­niver­sary award cer­e­mo­ny cel­e­brat­ing the ex­ploits of St James steel­bands. The or­gan­i­sa­tions–Afrikan Cul­tur­al As­so­ci­a­tion, St James Unit­ed In­ter­na­tion­al and Tripo­lians–rolled out the red car­pet to St James Cross­fire, win­ner of the 1963 Steel­band In­de­pen­dence Fes­ti­val; St James North Stars, win­ner of the 1964 Na­tion­al Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion; and, St James West Side Sym­pho­ny, win­ner of the 1964 Na­tion­al Steel­bands Mu­sic Fes­ti­val.

A spe­cial award was giv­en to Tripo­lians for their Re­new­ing the Essence of the Tra­di­tion­al Steel­band in 1971, and win­ning the first Tra­di­tion­al Panora­ma Steel­band Com­pe­ti­tion in 1975.

The event was at­tend­ed by pan af­fi­ciona­does from across the coun­try and dis­cus­sions were held about North Stars cap­tain/ tuner/arranger An­tho­ny Williams ORTT; West Side Sym­pho­ny's Her­man "Rock" John­son; Roy "Scor­pi­on" Hunte, Ken­rick George and Bertram Bob Thomas of Cross­fire; Son­ny Roach, Granville Sealy and Em­manuel Camps.

The evening end­ed with a 60th an­niver­sary launch of a nov­el, About a Tri­ni Smart Man by Dr Hugh Skin­ner, who read from his ten pre­vi­ous­ly re­leased books. For­mer Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch Chalk­dust (Dr Hol­lis Liv­er­pool) gave a beau­ti­ful in­sight in­to this Trinida­di­an au­thor who has been pen­ning his own his­to­ry and the en­cour­age­ment it gives to oth­ers to main­tain that lega­cy.