Ke­jan Haynes

Lead Ed­i­tor – News­gath­er­ing

Pan on D’Av­enue XII has been can­celled, with or­gan­is­ers say­ing they could not se­cure enough fund­ing and in­fra­struc­ture to stage the an­nu­al Steel­pan cel­e­bra­tion along Ari­api­ta Av­enue.

But or­gan­is­ers have left the door open for the event to be re­vived if Gov­ern­ment or cor­po­rate Trinidad and To­ba­go steps for­ward with the sup­port need­ed to close the re­main­ing gaps.

The Wood­brook/St James Com­mu­ni­ty As­so­ci­a­tion an­nounced the can­cel­la­tion on Thurs­day, say­ing it had spent months seek­ing fund­ing and sup­port for the event, orig­i­nal­ly sched­uled for In­de­pen­dence Day, Au­gust 31.

The event was moved to Au­gust 30 af­ter the Min­istry of Cul­ture de­cid­ed to stage its own pan event on In­de­pen­dence Day.

Chair­per­son Ayana Gar­cia told Guardian Me­dia the change cre­at­ed ad­di­tion­al chal­lenges, with some gov­ern­ment-pro­vid­ed in­fra­struc­ture promised to Pan on D’Av­enue lat­er hav­ing to be with­drawn be­cause it was need­ed to pre­pare for the Gov­ern­ment’s Au­gust 31 event.

She said items in­clud­ing rails and blocks were among the in­fra­struc­ture af­fect­ed.

“The nor­mal spon­sors, the nor­mal sup­port that we would get for the event, not sup­port by way of the steel­bands, but sup­port by way of cor­po­rate and gov­ern­ment spon­sor­ship is not re­al­ly show­ing it­self this year,” Gar­cia said.

She said or­gan­is­ers had al­so ap­proached State-linked com­pa­nies, in­clud­ing An­gos­tu­ra, but had not re­ceived the lev­el of sup­port re­quired.

The as­so­ci­a­tion said it had ap­proached min­istries and cor­po­rate part­ners, re­vised its bud­get and plans and re­peat­ed­ly ad­just­ed the event route in an ef­fort to make it hap­pen.

Gar­cia said the Min­istry of Cul­ture had of­fered as­sis­tance in kind, in­clud­ing help with some set-up re­quire­ments and clean-up af­ter the event, but could not pro­vide fi­nan­cial sup­port.

“At the end of the day, you need fi­nances,” she said.

The as­so­ci­a­tion said sev­er­al spon­sors and part­ners had sup­port­ed the event, in­clud­ing Bermudez, Sun­shine, Blue Wa­ters, Au­to­mo­tive Sup­plies Com­pa­ny, Si­mon’s Mu­si­cal Sup­plies and Sagi­cor.

It al­so thanked the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment for its en­dorse­ment and ef­forts to as­sist.

How­ev­er, Gar­cia said crit­i­cal re­quire­ments re­mained un­fund­ed or un­con­firmed, in­clud­ing mon­ey to pay the steel­bands and in­fra­struc­ture such as road­ways, sound, light­ing and bar­ri­ers.

“We don’t have the mon­ey, we don’t have the in­fra­struc­ture, things like that. We have per­mis­sion, but, I mean, that’s all,” Gar­cia said.

The as­so­ci­a­tion said the de­ci­sion to can­cel was not tak­en light­ly.

“For months, the Wood­brook/St. James Com­mu­ni­ty As­so­ci­a­tion has fought tire­less­ly to bring Pan on D’Av­enue XII — A Gift to the Na­tion to life,” it said in its can­cel­la­tion no­tice.

“De­ter­mi­na­tion alone can­not pay our steel­bands, se­cure our road­ways or pro­vide the sound, light­ing, bar­ri­ers and es­sen­tial in­fra­struc­ture need­ed to safe­ly ex­e­cute an event of this mag­ni­tude.”

Gar­cia said she still hopes the event can be sal­vaged if sup­port comes for­ward quick­ly.

“If peo­ple hap­pen to come for­ward, and we are get­ting that sup­port, we will be able to put it on,” she said.

The as­so­ci­a­tion made a sim­i­lar ap­peal in its can­cel­la­tion no­tice, say­ing it was pre­pared to “re­turn to the ta­ble” if the nec­es­sary sup­port came from Gov­ern­ment, cor­po­rate Trinidad and To­ba­go or oth­ers will­ing to help bridge the re­main­ing gaps.

“Our plans are ready. Our peo­ple are ready. We sim­ply need the sup­port to safe­ly bring the Gift to the Na­tion to the Av­enue,” the as­so­ci­a­tion said.

Pan on D’Av­enue was found­ed by the late Coun­cil­lor Cleve­land Gar­cia, Ayana Gar­cia’s fa­ther, as an event in­tend­ed to bring Steel­pan, com­mu­ni­ties and gen­er­a­tions to­geth­er.

The as­so­ci­a­tion said it had not giv­en up on that vi­sion.

“If Trinidad and To­ba­go still wants its Gift to the Na­tion, there is still time to help us de­liv­er it,” it said.