Point Fortin May­or Clyde Paul says there will be no Bor­ough Day cel­e­bra­tions with­out T&T's na­tion­al in­stru­ment, the steel­pan.Speak­ing on Sat­ur­day night, Paul adamant­ly de­clared that steel­pan will re­main a per­ma­nent fix­ture of Bor­ough Day cel­e­bra­tions, which of­fi­cial­ly kick off to­mor­row night.Ad­dress­ing the for­mal launch of Point Fortin Bor­ough Day cel­e­bra­tions on Sat­ur­day evening at Vic­tor Chin Kit Park in Point Fortin, Paul said there are some call­ing for steel­pan to be re­moved from the an­nu­al cel­e­bra­tions.

How­ev­er he said he will not al­low that to hap­pen."When you have peo­ple call­ing for no more steel­band, for­get that. These (things) do not make sense. As long as I am here, I am stand­ing with the steel­band and as long as I am here the steel­band will re­main," he de­clared.Paul said he ex­pects that he will be crit­i­cised for his po­si­tion, but he is ready for what­ev­er is thrown at him.

"I am not go­ing to sur­ren­der to those who say no steel­band. You have no steel­band, you have no more rhythm. As a mat­ter of fact you bet­ter get that mes­sage and get it loud," Paul said.Sat­ur­day's launch fea­tured per­for­mances from San City Steel Or­ches­tra, Fucs­dat Steel Or­ches­tra, La Brea Nightin­gales Steel Or­ches­tra, Di­a­ton­ics Pan In­sti­tute and Self-Help Marines. The au­di­ence was al­so en­ter­tained by Jah Roots–the lone pan-around-the-neck band.

Paul urged res­i­dents to be mind­ful of the peo­ple they in­vite in­to the bor­ough for the cel­e­bra­tions.He said he does not want a re­peat of last year's vi­o­lence that saw the mur­der of 31-year-old Arou­ca res­i­dent Dwayne Jack­son, a fa­ther of one. Paul de­scribed the killing as an "im­port­ed mur­der" since the peo­ple in­volved in the in­ci­dent were not from Point Fortin."Save your in­tegri­ty please. Save your in­no­cence please. I am beg­ging you all," Paul said.He urged Point Fortin res­i­dents to keep the cel­e­bra­tions safe and crime-free.

"What we are hav­ing in Point Fortin in the last few months is im­port­ed vi­o­la­tion of the law. Please peo­ple I am beg­ging you all: let not what hap­pened last year hap­pen again. Things that are be­ing re­port­ed as hap­pen­ing in Point Fortin, they are not from here," he said.The May­or added that Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Op­er­a­tions Cen­tre will be sup­port­ing po­lice in en­sur­ing a safe cel­e­bra­tion.

Thou­sands are al­so ex­pect­ed to con­verge on the south­ern bor­ough for the an­nu­al par­ty-like at­mos­phere. It al­so ex­pect­ed that the re­cent open­ing of the Guapo beach fa­cil­i­ties at Clifton Hill Beach, Point Fortin will be a prime op­tion for par­ty­go­ers this year.To­mor­row's event is en­ti­tled "Trib­ute the Achiev­ers" and will ho­n­our res­i­dents from Point Fortin at South­ern Gar­dens at 7 pm.