Pan Trinbago dedicates Panorama 2027 to Sparrow

Chester Sam­bra­no

Lead Ed­i­tor, News­gath­er­ing

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Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ly Ram­sey-Moore has promised that Panora­ma 2027 will be the great­est stag­ing of the an­nu­al steel­band com­pe­ti­tion, as the or­gan­i­sa­tion ded­i­cates the sea­son to the late ca­lyp­son­ian Slinger Fran­cis­co, bet­ter known as the Mighty Spar­row.

Spar­row died on Sep­tem­ber 27, aged 91. He was ho­n­oured at a State-as­sist­ed fu­ner­al ser­vice at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts in Port-of-Spain last Fri­day, be­fore be­ing buried dur­ing a pri­vate cer­e­mo­ny at Lapey­rouse Ceme­tery on Sat­ur­day.

Speak­ing at the launch of Panora­ma 2027 on Sun­day night at the Des­per­a­does pa­n­yard, Ram­sey-Moore urged sup­port­ers to turn out in large num­bers for the com­pe­ti­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly the North Stand, where she promised the at­mos­phere would be un­for­get­table.

“I look for­ward to see­ing all the posse in the Salt Fish North Stand, and trust me, that Salt Fish will be re­al sweet,” she said.

Ram­sey-Moore said tick­ets for the North Stand and the Grand Stand for the large band fi­nals were al­ready sell­ing, and en­cour­aged the pub­lic to se­cure their places for the 2027 sea­son.

The ded­i­ca­tion to Spar­row will cel­e­brate the con­tri­bu­tion of the leg­endary ca­lyp­son­ian to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s cul­tur­al lega­cy, as the steel­band move­ment pre­pares for an­oth­er year of com­pe­ti­tion.

Ram­sey-Moore de­scribed the up­com­ing sea­son as a new mis­sion for the move­ment, built on strength, re­silience and de­ter­mi­na­tion.

“We are about to turn the cor­ner on a new Panora­ma mis­sion, a mis­sion of strength, a mis­sion of re­silience, a mis­sion of brava­do, a mis­sion where we are un­shake­able, where we are un­stop­pable,” she said.

She al­so praised the younger gen­er­a­tion for help­ing to sus­tain the move­ment, say­ing their en­er­gy had re­newed her com­mit­ment to the steel­band com­mu­ni­ty.

“We stand with our young peo­ple be­cause you have re­vived our souls. You are the ones who are go­ing to mo­ti­vate the lead­er­ship of the move­ment,” she said.

Ram­sey-Moore said steel­band lead­ers, par­ents and com­mu­ni­ties had a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­tect the lega­cy in­her­it­ed from their an­ces­tors and en­sure young peo­ple re­mained at the cen­tre of the move­ment’s de­vel­op­ment.

“The keep­ers of the lega­cy, the lega­cy that was born be­hind the bridge, the lega­cy that came from with­in the soul and the spir­it of our an­ces­tors, it is yours to pro­tect, it is yours to keep,” she said.

She al­so re­ject­ed sug­ges­tions that Pan Trin­ba­go and the steel­band move­ment were de­pen­dent on hand­outs, in­sist­ing that the or­gan­i­sa­tion had a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to ad­vo­cate for its mem­bers and sup­port their wel­fare.

Ad­dress­ing dis­cus­sions on so­cial me­dia about the move­ment be­ing beg­gars, she said: “We are not beg­gars. We are not hew­ers of wood or draw­ers of wa­ter.”

Ram­sey-Moore said the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s work ex­tend­ed be­yond or­gan­is­ing Panora­ma, with pa­n­yards pro­vid­ing young peo­ple with safe spaces to de­vel­op their tal­ents, build friend­ships, learn team­work and re­solve con­flicts.