Wes­ley Gib­bings

Tu­na­puna Tipi­ca was on hand to pro­vide in­struc­tion un­der the di­rec­tion of young steel­pan phe­nom Den­zell Headley, as some of the na­tion’s lead­ing school bands dis­played the dis­ci­pline, en­er­gy, and cre­ativ­i­ty that con­tin­ue to de­fine the na­tion­al in­stru­ment.

The oc­ca­sion was the Youth Steel­pan Jam­boree, host­ed by San Juan North Sec­ondary School on Sep­tem­ber 27 at its school com­pound.

The event, staged over al­most five hours, brought to­geth­er bands, in­struc­tors, young arrangers, par­ents, and sup­port­ers in a pro­gramme aimed at show­cas­ing the tal­ent of young pan­nists.

The Jam­boree was or­gan­ised through a part­ner­ship of school staff, par­ents, and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers, and moved smooth­ly from start to fin­ish. The sched­ule in­clud­ed con­tin­u­ous per­for­mances as well as side ac­tiv­i­ties de­signed to en­gage both play­ers and the gen­er­al au­di­ence.

Among the par­tic­i­pat­ing groups were the 2025 Sec­ondary Schools Panora­ma cham­pi­ons, Bish­ops Anstey/Trin­i­ty Col­lege East (BATCE), which per­formed with the pre­ci­sion and pol­ish ex­pect­ed of de­fend­ing win­ners.

Al­so fea­tured were the com­bined QRC/Prov­i­dence en­sem­ble, St George’s Col­lege, Ari­ma An­gel Harps Ju­niors, and the Tran­quil­li­ty/Bel­mont Sec­ondary Steel Or­ches­tra. The home side, San Juan North Sec­ondary, closed the day’s pro­gramme with a spir­it­ed per­for­mance that earned strong sup­port from the au­di­ence.

The per­for­mances re­flect­ed not on­ly mu­si­cal skill but al­so ca­ma­raderie across schools. While bands played, stu­dents from oth­er groups were of­ten seen danc­ing, cheer­ing, and en­cour­ag­ing their peers, adding to the sense of uni­ty that un­der­pinned the event.

The Jam­boree al­so in­cor­po­rat­ed sev­er­al side at­trac­tions. Food and re­fresh­ment stalls op­er­at­ed through­out the day, while com­pet­i­tive games drew steady par­tic­i­pa­tion. These in­clud­ed hatch­et throw­ing, a “Tin Pan Al­ley” chal­lenge, foot­ball penal­ty shootouts, and a wa­ter dunk­ing sta­tion that proved es­pe­cial­ly pop­u­lar with younger at­ten­dees.

In ad­di­tion to the per­for­mances and games, the event high­light­ed the ed­u­ca­tion­al as­pect of pan through the “Pan­KNOWrama” quiz com­pe­ti­tions.

Stu­dents were test­ed on their knowl­edge of Panora­ma con­tests, in­clud­ing both ju­nior and se­nior com­po­nents, and re­spond­ed with en­thu­si­asm and ac­cu­ra­cy. Or­gan­is­ers not­ed that the quizzes served to re­in­force the his­tor­i­cal and cul­tur­al aware­ness of the par­tic­i­pants, while al­so pro­vid­ing a light but com­pet­i­tive el­e­ment to the day’s ac­tiv­i­ties.

Spe­cial at­ten­tion was al­so giv­en to the in­volve­ment of young in­struc­tors and arrangers, among them Headley, whose par­tic­i­pa­tion un­der­scored the em­pha­sis on de­vel­op­ing fu­ture lead­ers in pan.

His role in guid­ing Tu­na­puna Tipi­ca at the Jam­boree demon­strat­ed the op­por­tu­ni­ties avail­able for youth not on­ly to per­form but al­so to take up lead­er­ship roles in the steel­pan move­ment.

By the close of the af­ter­noon, the event had de­liv­ered on its ob­jec­tive of bring­ing to­geth­er schools, stu­dents, and sup­port­ers in cel­e­bra­tion of the steel­pan.