SAN­DRA L BLOOD

mindup.slblood@gmail.com

Whether San Fer­nan­do was damp­ened by COVID-19 or not, start­ing from No­vem­ber 5 and run­ning through the en­tire month, it will spring back to alive from its city cor­po­ra­tion’s 2022 cel­e­bra­to­ry event ti­tled, Let The Cel­e­bra­tions Be­gin, as San Fer­nan­do cel­e­brates its City’s 34th An­niver­sary on the 18, where a Civic Re­cep­tion and Awards Cer­e­mo­ny is planned.

Hav­ing part­nered with the Of­fice of His Wor­ship, the city’s may­or, Ju­nia Re­grel­lo ex­pressed in a video re­lease on No­vem­ber 1 that the oc­ca­sion speaks to The Moth­er of Car­ni­val – cel­e­brat­ing the city’s sta­tus and bring­ing to­geth­er all the com­po­nents of the arts.

The 5 will tail-end a one-week Men­tal Health youth ex­hi­bi­tion, but David Rud­der will kick start the of­fi­cial month’s cel­e­bra­tions with a con­cert, with a stream of oth­er ex­cit­ing events to fol­low.

NLCB Fonclaire

Big on the show list is Pan on d’ Cof­fee where pan lovers, sup­port­ers, re­cu­sants, the cu­ri­ous, the young and old, rich and poor, are wel­comed. Re­grel­lo said it’s not a com­pe­ti­tion but word on the ground is that the bands are com­ing strong.

Oth­er pan stars: NL­CB Fon­claire, Old Tech, Pan El­ders, San City and bring­ing up the rear will be Carib Skif­fle.

“We have been prepar­ing for a while now to give San Fer­nan­do a taste of pan,” said an ex­cit­ed Re­grel­lo.

“A taste of what can be an­tic­i­pat­ed for car­ni­val, and the city cor­po­ra­tion is com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing this hap­pens. We are to set the tone and pro­vide op­por­tu­ni­ties for bands.”

Re­grel­lo touched on some chal­lenges such as a lack of spon­sor­ship, lack of ad­e­quate sup­port, trans­porta­tion, is­sues to get in­to Port of Spain and that whole di­choto­my be­tween Port of Spain and San Fer­nan­do bands, but they are re­lent­less in their pur­suit to bring sig­nif­i­cance to the San Fer­nan­do bands.

“I will con­tin­ue to per­se­vere and work be­hind the scenes to en­sure the bands are ready for the re­quired stan­dard of suc­cess.”

David Rudder

He fur­ther ex­plained, that The Cof­fee has a strong his­to­ry of pan-ex­is­tence in San Fer­nan­do, that many should re­call Free French, An­til­lean All Stars, Metronomes and Mae­stros, and oth­er fore­run­ners, and right now they (cur­rent pan­nists) are stand­ing on their shoul­ders for the con­tri­bu­tions they have made over the years in keep­ing pan alive in San Fer­nan­do. “It’s the home front and bedrock of pan in San Fer­nan­do, so The Cof­fee is the place.”

This first full-scale in-per­son cel­e­bra­tion marks an­oth­er sig­nif­i­cant mean­ing. Hav­ing ob­served weak­ened/con­cern­ing be­hav­iours dis­played by quite a few ado­les­cents in their at­tempts to ad­just or adapt to req­ui­site changes brought about by COVID-19, in part­ner­ship with PA­HO/WHO, UNDP, UNICEF, and gov­ern­ment stake­hold­ers, Re­grel­lo and the City Cor­po­ra­tion, em­barked up­on an ado­les­cent men­tal health project tar­get­ing schools of San Fer­nan­do.

For sev­er­al weeks a na­tion­al youth com­mit­tee en­gaged in di­verse gen­res of cre­ative ex­pres­sions where well-known artistes, Marge Black­man and Neval Chate­lal, as­sist­ed. A mu­sic video and project theme song aimed at pro­mot­ing pos­i­tive at­ti­tudes to­ward men­tal health were ac­com­plished. The song, We Have Love, writ­ten by Black­man was pro­duced.

As part of the cel­e­bra­to­ry month, from Oc­to­ber 29 to No­vem­ber 5, the re­lat­ed ac­com­plish­ments will be show­cased in a mul­ti­me­dia ex­hi­bi­tion at the au­di­to­ri­um of the San Fer­nan­do Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion.

May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo said it’s a full range of ac­tiv­i­ties. “All are wel­come to come and cel­e­brate.”

Carib Skiffle

Let the Cel­e­bra­tions Be­gin cal­en­dar of events

Oct 29-Nov 5: Ado­les­cent Men­tal Health Ex­hi­bi­tion, City Hall Au­di­to­ri­um

Nov 05: David Rud­der in Con­cert at SAPA, 8 pm.

Nov 10: Un­veil­ing of the Caz­abon Wall, C3 Mall.

Nov 12: Pan on d’ Cof­fee, rolling from Roy­al Road in front of Seon’s Bar through The Cof­fee, 9 pm.

Nov 16: San Fer­nan­do 10k Run/Walk (Con­quer the Hills), 6 am.

Nov 17: Se­nior Cit­i­zens Day, City Hall Au­di­to­ri­um.

Nov 18: Civic Re­cep­tion and Awards Func­tion, St. Paul’s An­gli­can Church, 6 pm.

Nov 19: J’ou­vert (from Roy­al Road) | Li­ons Club Boat Cruise - Li­ons to the Sea, 4 pm | Pan In De Ville.

Nov 20: `Ter­ri Lyons in Con­cert, Na­pari­ma Bowl.

Nov 26: May­or’s Ball, City Hall Au­di­to­ri­um | Mil­i­tary Pa­rade, Kings’ Wharf to Roy­al Road.

Nov 27: Car Show, Cross Cross­ing

TBA: Tour Guide Train­ing – the un­told won­ders of Par­adise Ceme­tery (May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo trains the Trinidad & To­ba­go Tour Guide As­so­ci­a­tion)

TBA: A Chil­dren’s Bird Watch­er’s Guide to the San Fer­nan­do’s Wa­ter­front, City Hall Au­di­to­ri­um.