SAN­DRA L BLOOD

mindup.slblood@gmail.com

As Steel­pan Month con­tin­ues to en­ter­tain, ed­u­cate and cel­e­brate, the much an­tic­i­pat­ed 21st event for the month, Pan and Pow­der—the first in-per­son pan street pa­rade since 2019, ow­ing to the re­stric­tions im­posed due to the Covid-19—got on the way on Au­gust 24 with­in the vicin­i­ty of the city of Port of Spain comb­ing Knox, Pem­broke and up­per Fred­er­ick Streets, and at the paved area of the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, from 6.30 – 10.30pm, re­spec­tive­ly, with the par­tic­i­pa­to­ry code, “Wear some­thing white and bring pow­der.”

Events com­mit­tee mem­ber Nicholas Dar­breau of­fi­cial­ly opened the event af­ter per­for­mances by bands fixed at City Hall, Knox Street, that end­ed with the reign­ing Na­tion­al Panora­ma cham­pi­on, Des­per­a­does.

Pres­i­dent of Pan Trin­ba­go Bev­er­ly Ram­sey-Moore kept to the com­mit­tee’s white theme, donned broad-brimmed hat, long-sleeved I Love Pan jer­sey, slim jeans and track shoes, and of course, a large white plas­tic con­tain­er of body pow­der. She brought wel­come greet­ings.

Ram­sey-Moore stat­ed that this year’s Pan Month be­ing a very spe­cial one so too, Pan and Pow­der, as the year marks the 30th an­niver­sary of the de­c­la­ra­tion of pan as the Na­tion­al In­stru­ment by then Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, while the May­or of the city of Port-of-Spain, Joel Mar­tinez in­clud­ed in his re­marks a re­minder that his of­fice de­clared Steel­pan Day on Au­gust 11 of this year, 2022.

As the pa­rade moved up Pem­broke Street, Ram­sey-Moore and her en­tourage that in­clud­ed mem­bers of her cen­tral ex­ec­u­tive com­mit­tee and re­gion­al heads led the way.

Vice pres­i­dent Kei­th Simp­son was close-by in his tra­di­tion­al fan­cy sailor cos­tume that stood-up to oth­er cos­tumed par­tic­i­pants in­clud­ing moko jumbies.

Trinidad All Stars lead-off with part of their de­liv­ery be­ing a well-or­ches­trat­ed record­ed reper­toire, fol­lowed by hot, scin­til­lat­ing, spir­it­ed and youth­ful Nu­tri­ent Sil­ver Stars and an in­fec­tious Had­co Phase II, with all end­ing their mu­si­cal en­ter­tain­ment at the last turn-off be­fore the en­trance to the main Grand Stand are­na.

The mu­si­cal ba­ton was then hand­ed over to the three fixed bands on site: FCB Su­per­novas, Cou­va Joy­lan­ders, and reign­ing large band hat-trick champs, bp Rene­gades, who closed off the event at 10.30 sharp, fol­low­ing an en­core and a thun­der­ous call for more from the pan-thirsty mob. Pan and pow­der did rain down on the mas­sive crowds that filled streets, pave­ments and the sa­van­nah, dri­ving the weath­ered rain away.

Steel­pan Month ends on the Au­gust 31 with six oth­er events to fol­low re­sum­ing from Au­gust 26th with Pan Trin­ba­go’s North Re­gion’s Let’s Cel­e­brate Steel­pan Month at 6pm and South/Cen­tral re­gion­al’s Pan Ex­plo­sion at 7pm. On the 27, 1-5pm free ad­mis­sion: IDB Cheer Fair 2022 at Saith Park, Ch­agua­nas; 28: Youth Gala & Award Cer­e­mo­ny, QPS; 31, 6-7pm: New­town Play­boys In­de­pen­dence Day Brunch, and 8pm: bp Rene­gades The In­de­pen­dence Night Fete ti­tled Rep­re­sent.