SAN­DRA L BLOOD

Pan Trin­ba­go’s To­ba­go Steel­pan and Pow­der Pa­rade lit up the is­land on Oc­to­ber 25, start­ing from the Coast Guard Base at the cor­ner of Ca­lyp­so Rose Boule­vard and Or­ange Hill Road.

Held un­der the theme “You Can’t Love Steel­pan Mu­sic and Fraid Pow­der!”, the event burst with en­er­gy, colour, and tra­di­tion­al Car­ni­val char­ac­ters. Amidst the pow­der clouds and pul­sat­ing pan rhythms, two stand­out per­son­al­i­ties earned the ti­tles of King and Queen of Pow­der—fear­less­ly em­brac­ing the spir­it of the cel­e­bra­tion.

At the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny, the Queen of Pow­der, ra­di­ant in her red and white Min­strel-in­spired cos­tume and flash­ing a wide smile, per­fumed the air with aro­mat­ic pow­der as she danced to the sounds of Hope Pan Groovers, Ply­mouth Bethes­da Steel Sen­sa­tions, and T&TEC New East Side Di­men­sion.

Mean­while, along the pa­rade route—stretch­ing from Ca­lyp­so Rose Boule­vard to Gar­den­side and Post Of­fice Streets, and end­ing at Mar­ket Square—the King of Pow­der was ful­ly im­mersed in the rev­el­ry, pow­der-drenched and sur­round­ed by the in­fec­tious mu­sic of Katzen­jam­mers, who led the pa­rade.

Oth­er rov­ing bands in­clud­ed RBC Di­men­sion Sound Set­ters and head­lin­ers Massy All Stars from Trinidad, who led a sea of white-clad fans to Mar­ket Square. Af­ter a brief sta­tion­ary jam ses­sion, they con­tin­ued along the route, keep­ing the en­er­gy high un­til the fi­nale.

The grand con­clu­sion at Mar­ket Square fea­tured an ex­plo­sive per­for­mance by Steel Xplo­sion, NL­CB Buc­cooneers, and bp Rene­gades, clos­ing the event with a pow­er­ful, in­ter­ac­tive dis­play of mu­si­cal artistry.

Pan Trin­ba­go and its To­ba­go Re­gion ex­tend grat­i­tude to their part­ners and spon­sors: the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly, Di­vi­sion of Tourism, Cul­ture, An­tiq­ui­ties & Trans­porta­tion, To­ba­go Fes­ti­vals Com­mis­sion, To­ba­go Car­ni­val, Carib, and An­gos­tu­ra.