Cab­i­net has ap­proved an in­crease in fund­ing for un­spon­sored steel­bands and steel­pan play­ers. 

A state­ment is­sued by the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture, and the Arts yes­ter­day, said, “These boosts in fund­ing reaf­firm the Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to pre­serv­ing and pro­mot­ing the cul­tur­al lega­cy of the steel­pan – our Na­tion­al Mu­si­cal In­stru­ment, en­sur­ing that the vi­brant spir­it of Car­ni­val thrives for gen­er­a­tions to come.”

It added that these mea­sures which were in­tro­duced in prepa­ra­tion for Car­ni­val 2025, “aim to en­hance par­tic­i­pa­tion in Panora­ma and fos­ter greater in­clu­siv­i­ty with­in the steel­band com­mu­ni­ty. This in­crease re­flects the Gov­ern­ment’s recog­ni­tion of the crit­i­cal role that the steel­pan fra­ter­ni­ty plays in shap­ing the Car­ni­val ex­pe­ri­ence, both lo­cal­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly.”

The new fund­ing mea­sures out­lined for Car­ni­val 2025 in the re­lease are:

1. In­creased grants for un­spon­sored steel­bands- Un­spon­sored steel­bands par­tic­i­pat­ing in Panora­ma 2025 will ben­e­fit from en­hanced fi­nan­cial sup­port. These grants will be avail­able to each of the 54 Sin­gle Pan Bands and 96 Con­ven­tion­al Bands en­ter­ing the com­pe­ti­tion:

· Sin­gle Pan Bands - Grant al­lo­ca­tions have in­creased from $7,500 to $10,000 per band.

· Con­ven­tion­al Bands - Grant al­lo­ca­tions have in­creased from $15,000 to $20,000 per band.

2. In­creased re­mit­tances for steel­pan play­ers-

To en­cour­age greater par­tic­i­pa­tion and sup­port for steel­pan play­ers in their prepa­ra­tions for Panora­ma 2025, the Gov­ern­ment has in­creased the re­mit­tance pro­vid­ed to play­ers. The fi­nan­cial sup­port for each play­er has been raised from $500 to $800, help­ing to cov­er es­sen­tial costs such as food and trans­porta­tion dur­ing the com­pe­ti­tion.

Mean­while, Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture, and the Arts,  Ran­dall Mitchell, em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of the in­crease in fund­ing.

He said, “This in­crease in fund­ing to the un­spon­sored steel­bands and to the in­di­vid­ual steel­pan play­ers re­it­er­ates our strength­ened com­mit­ment to the steel­band com­mu­ni­ty. Steel­band mu­sic is an in­te­gral part of our cul­tur­al her­itage, and we are proud to in­vest in the pan­nists and bands that help bring this vi­brant tra­di­tion to life.

“With these grants, we aim to pro­vide the nec­es­sary tools and as­sis­tance for steel­band play­ers to con­tin­ue their artistry, ex­pand their reach, and make last­ing con­tri­bu­tions to the mu­sic world and to Trin­ba­go’s cul­tur­al her­itage.”