The sweet sounds of parang will echo through Buenos Ayres to­mor­row as par­ran­deros show­case “El Poder de La Par­ran­da”—The Pow­er of Parang—at the sec­ond stop of the 2025 Parang Fes­ti­val host­ed by the Na­tion­al Parang As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NPATT).

The fes­ti­val, which of­fi­cial­ly launched on Sep­tem­ber 27 in San­ta Cruz, now trav­els deep South to the Sa­cred Heart RC Church car park, promis­ing an evening of mu­sic, cul­ture, and com­mu­ni­ty spir­it.

“The last time we were in Buenos Ayres was two years ago, and we are hap­py to be back,” said NPATT pres­i­dent Ali­cia Jag­gasar.

“We con­tin­ue to col­lab­o­rate with com­mu­ni­ties to en­sure that each stop is a mem­o­rable one. We are al­so grate­ful for the sup­port of Pen­ta and the Min­istry of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment for this sea­son.”

The bands sched­uled to per­form at Sat­ur­day’s event in­clude:

• ↓San­couche (home band)

• ↓Los Buenos Par­ran­deros

• ↓Los Ruiseñores

• ↓Vo­ces de Prome­sa

• ↓Los Alum­nos de San Juan

This year’s fes­ti­val al­so marks the much-an­tic­i­pat­ed re­turn of com­pe­ti­tion, last staged in 2016. How­ev­er, the 2025 edi­tion in­tro­duces a new, com­mu­ni­ty-cen­tred for­mat.

“For starters, there will be com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven judg­ing,” Jag­gasar ex­plained. “The Peo­ple’s Cham­pi­on com­pe­ti­tion will be de­cid­ed by au­di­ence votes, en­cour­ag­ing each band to bring fam­i­ly, friends, and sup­port­ers, while build­ing com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ment. The band with the most votes at the end of each fes­ti­val night will re­ceive a cash prize and be crowned Peo­ple’s Cham­pi­on of that vil­lage.”

Par­tic­i­pat­ing bands would have reg­is­tered their in­ter­est at the start of the sea­son, with a re­quire­ment to per­form at least three of the five of­fi­cial venues for this year’s fes­ti­val.

The re­main­ing stops on the 2025 Parang Fes­ti­val cal­en­dar are:

• ↓San Rafael RC Church—Oc­to­ber 25

• ↓San Fer­nan­do As­so­ci­a­tion for Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties—No­vem­ber 8

• ↓St Michael’s RC Church, Mara­cas St Joseph—No­vem­ber 29 (Se­mi-Fi­nal)

• ↓First Peo­ple’s Vil­lage, Ari­ma—De­cem­ber 13 (Fi­nals)

• ↓St Michael’s RC Church, Mara­cas, St Joseph—Jan­u­ary 10, 2026

For the grand fi­nals in Ari­ma, judg­ing will re­vert to the tra­di­tion­al for­mat, with a max­i­mum of eight bands com­pet­ing. Each will per­form ei­ther a well-known or new­ly com­posed piece that in­cludes three core styles: an Anun­ciación (An­nun­ci­a­tion), a Nacimien­to (Na­tiv­i­ty), and a Christ­mas car­ol arranged in parang style.

“We look for­ward to see­ing sup­port­ers of parang join­ing us through­out the sea­son,” Jag­gasar said. “It’s a cel­e­bra­tion of our cul­ture, our mu­sic, and our com­mu­ni­ties—the true pow­er of parang.”