Revised lineup announced for Generations of Steel after band withdrawals

The or­gan­is­ers of the Gen­er­a­tions of Steel con­cert say tonight's show will go ahead de­spite the with­draw­al of three head­line steel or­ches­tras, while of­fer­ing re­funds to pa­trons who no longer wish to at­tend.

In a state­ment on Fri­day night, the or­gan­is­ing com­mit­tee said ad­min­is­tra­tive set­backs caused by the late and out­stand­ing dis­burse­ment of ex­pect­ed cor­po­rate spon­sor­ship meant it was un­able to make the ini­tial con­trac­tu­al down­pay­ments to all ad­ver­tised bands with­in the re­quired time­frame.

The com­mit­tee said the fi­nan­cial con­straints led to the with­draw­al of Des­per­a­does, Shell In­vaders and First Cit­i­zens Su­per­novas.

"While the com­mit­tee re­grets this de­vel­op­ment, we re­spect that bands in­cur sig­nif­i­cant op­er­a­tional and trans­port ex­pens­es to pre­pare for the stage and can­not op­er­ate with­out se­cu­ri­ty," the state­ment said.

Or­gan­is­ers said they con­sid­ered can­celling the event on Wednes­day but in­stead de­cid­ed to pro­ceed with a re­vised line­up.

The con­cert will now fea­ture Massy Trinidad All Stars and Fon­claire, Road­Block Steel Or­ches­tra, Star­lift Steel Or­ches­tra and QRC-Provi.

The com­mit­tee said the event was con­ceived as an ef­fort to help build a sus­tain­able fu­ture for steel­pan through high-qual­i­ty con­certs out­side of the Car­ni­val sea­son, adding that tick­et sales di­rect­ly sup­port the mu­si­cians per­form­ing.

It al­so thanked the Prime Min­is­ter's Sport and Cul­ture Fund for pro­vid­ing as­sis­tance that helped keep the event on track and en­sure per­form­ers would be paid.

Pa­trons who still wish to at­tend will be ac­com­mo­dat­ed, while those seek­ing re­funds can re­quest them from the out­let where their tick­ets were pur­chased.

Re­funds will be avail­able un­til 4 pm on Mon­day, Ju­ly 13.

The con­cert is sched­uled to take place on Sat­ur­day at the Grand Stand, Queen's Park Sa­van­nah.