KE­JAN HAYNES

Lead Ed­i­tor – News­gath­er­ing

Pan on D’Av­enue XII could be back on, just hours af­ter or­gan­is­ers an­nounced its can­cel­la­tion.

Chair­per­son Ayana Gar­cia told Guardian Me­dia new spon­sors and pre­vi­ous­ly ap­proached com­pa­nies are now com­ing for­ward with sup­port for the Au­gust 30 Steel­pan cel­e­bra­tion.

Gar­cia said dis­cus­sions are un­der­way to meet the event’s re­main­ing needs.

“Every­thing is com­ing to­geth­er slow­ly but sure­ly,” she said.

Asked whether the new sup­port was com­ing from ex­ist­ing spon­sors or new ones, Gar­cia said: “New ones. And ones we would’ve reached out to be­fore and got no re­sponse. They are com­ing to­geth­er now.”

The Wood­brook/St James Com­mu­ni­ty As­so­ci­a­tion an­nounced the can­cel­la­tion on Thurs­day, say­ing it had been un­able to se­cure enough fund­ing and in­fra­struc­ture to stage the event along Ari­api­ta Av­enue.

The as­so­ci­a­tion had ap­pealed to Gov­ern­ment, cor­po­rate Trinidad and To­ba­go and oth­ers to help bridge the re­main­ing gaps, in­clud­ing fund­ing for steel­bands and in­fra­struc­ture such as road­ways, sound, light­ing and bar­ri­ers.

Gar­cia had said the event could still be sal­vaged if peo­ple came for­ward with the nec­es­sary sup­port.

That now ap­pears to be hap­pen­ing.

The as­so­ci­a­tion has not yet for­mal­ly an­nounced that the event is back on, but Gar­cia said the dis­cus­sions are con­tin­u­ing and sup­port is grow­ing.

Pan on D’Av­enue XII was sched­uled for Au­gust 30, af­ter the Min­istry of Cul­ture an­nounced its own pan event for In­de­pen­dence Day, Au­gust 31.

The an­nu­al event was found­ed by the late Coun­cil­lor Cleve­land Gar­cia, Ayana Gar­cia’s fa­ther, as a cel­e­bra­tion aimed at bring­ing Steel­pan, com­mu­ni­ties and gen­er­a­tions to­geth­er.

For now, the or­gan­is­ers are work­ing against the clock to see whether the Gift to the Na­tion can re­turn to the Av­enue.