Grena­da's Spice Mas 2013 has been ded­i­cat­ed to T&T's na­tion­al in­stru­ment, the steel­pan. The theme of this year's fes­tiv­i­ties is Sweet Steel­pan Mu­sic, The Sound and Rhythm of Spice Mas, Tourism and Cul­ture Min­is­ter Alexan­dra Ot­way-Noel said yes­ter­day.

"Pan is an im­por­tant part of who we are. Some peo­ple say that it was a Grena­di­an that in­vent pan, but that's an­oth­er ar­gu­ment. We have a lot of tal­ent­ed pan groups and we want­ed to high­light them this year as part of the mu­sic and who we are and where we come from," she told the Sun­day Guardian.

Grena­da's an­nu­al Na­tion­al Panora­ma took place last night at the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um in Queen's Park, St George's, with can­gle Harps, New Di­men­sion, Pan Lovers, Flori­da All Stars, Grand Roy Pan An­gels, Rain­bow City All Stars, Com­mancheros and Pan Os­sia Steel Or­ches­tras vy­ing for the ti­tle. Ot­way-Noel said the fo­cus on the steel­pan, which the is­land con­sid­ers an in­dige­nous facet, is part of a greater her­itage pri­or­i­ty on the is­land.

"I think it's al­ways im­por­tant to know where you start­ed and where your roots are. You know where you come from and you know where you're go­ing. So, we want­ed to bring back some of the el­e­ments of car­ni­val, even our tra­di­tion­al mas to make it re­al, to bring some his­to­ry back in­to our car­ni­val be­cause that is what makes us unique, too. Our J'Ou­vert is one of the best in the world, if not the best in the world!" she said.Tourists ar­rivals for Spice Mas have in­creased, Ot­way-Noel re­vealed.

On Fri­day, the Paria Bul­let, one of the ves­sels op­er­at­ing on T&T's Wa­ter Taxi Ser­vice sailed by char­ter from the Port of Port-of-Spain, to St George's with 300 pas­sen­gers on board."All the flights are full from Trinidad to Grena­da. We think we are go­ing to have a won­der­ful Car­ni­val. In fact flights from every­where to Grena­da are full. We are feel­ing very, very proud of the achieve­ment and that peo­ple are tak­ing no­tice of our lit­tle Spice Mas. It's a won­der­ful event." Ot­way-Noel said.

"Our ho­tels are booked. We took three ho­tels to the launch in Trinidad and now all of these peo­ple vis­it­ing us are stay­ing in those ho­tels. It's a win-win for every­one and I think the Car­ni­val bands, the J'Ou­vert bands are go­ing to see a few more peo­ple this year, and that's what we want. We don't want mass mar­ket. We don't want to lose our in­ti­ma­cy we have in Grena­da, but at the same time, a few friends from Trinidad are al­ways wel­come."

Grena­da's fo­cus on T&T vis­i­tors, said the Tourism and Cul­ture min­is­ter was be­cause of the his­tor­i­cal links the is­lands en­joy. "Our Spice Mas is the last car­ni­val in the Caribbean, so it's the last lap. Trinidad, of course, is full of rev­ellers and right next door.

Fol­low­ing Fri­day's So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion, at­ten­tion turns to tonight's Di­manche Gras show­case, fol­lowed by J'Ou­vert on Mon­day. Spice Mas 2013 cli­max­es with Mon­day's Pa­rade of the Bands along Port High­way.