Uptown Fascinators vow not to be silenced after arson attack

For­mer Panora­ma cham­pi­ons Up­town Fas­ci­na­tors say they will not be si­lenced, de­spite an ar­son at­tack on Tues­day at their pan tent in To­ba­go.

The in­ci­dent took place ear­ly Tues­day morn­ing, tem­porar­i­ly dis­rupt­ing the band as it pre­pares for next month's Small Con­ven­tion­al Bands fi­nals.

CCTV footage of the in­ci­dent cap­tured a man with a pro­nounced limp walk­ing in­to the fa­cil­i­ty car­ry­ing a con­tain­er. The sus­pect, who was dressed in dark cloth­ing and a hood­ie, ap­peared to throw a chem­i­cal sub­stance on the wall of the build­ing be­fore set­ting it alight.

Up­town Fas­ci­na­tors man­ag­er Sal­isha James con­firmed that a con­gos drum, val­ued at ap­prox­i­mate­ly $2,500, and a chair were de­stroyed in the blaze. She said the walls of the fa­cil­i­ty were scorched, but the fire did not spread be­cause there was noth­ing flam­ma­ble near­by to fu­el it.

In an in­ter­view on Thurs­day, James ex­pressed dis­ap­point­ment over the in­ci­dent but vowed to de­fend the band's new home.

In Jan­u­ary, the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) an­nounced a do­na­tion of land to Up­town Fas­ci­na­tors for a pan the­atre. The de­vel­op­ment was a re­lief for the band, which had nev­er had a per­ma­nent home de­spite its Panora­ma suc­cess.

"One thing we know about is strug­gling. We have been strug­gling from in­cep­tion. It is the first time we have a place to call ours. We win Panora­ma three times while beg­ging a lodg­ing," James said.

But while band mem­bers were elat­ed to move in, James ac­knowl­edged that some peo­ple in Whim vil­lage were not pleased. Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that res­i­dents have com­plained to Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine about the pres­ence of the steel­band.

Asked whether any band mem­ber had re­ceived threats re­cent­ly, James said: "We came in­to an area with nev­er had steel­band mu­sic be­fore. The res­i­dents com­plained ear­ly o' clock about a steel­band be­ing there. I don't wan­na spec­u­late, but it could be along those lines."

With the Panora­ma fi­nals sched­uled for De­cem­ber 19, James said the band ex­tend­ed its prac­tice last Sat­ur­day un­til 10.30 pm. She re­vealed that re­hearsals con­tin­ued un­til mid­night on Wednes­day, as in­tense prepa­ra­tion was es­sen­tial to achiev­ing suc­cess.

"We are will­ing to work with the res­i­dents with re­spect to time, but a band that en­ters na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion re­quires a lev­el of prepa­ra­tion. It is ob­vi­ous that close to a com­pe­ti­tion, we will be prac­tis­ing a lit­tle lat­er."

She said some vil­lagers had been abu­sive to­wards band mem­bers, us­ing ob­scene lan­guage, even in the pres­ence of mi­nors. She urged res­i­dents to recog­nise the im­pact the band was hav­ing on young peo­ple.

"If you live in the area, you gonna see the in­flux of chil­dren to the pan tent. We close to a pri­ma­ry school (Scar­bor­ough RC) and a high school (Bish­op's High School), and stu­dents come to learn in our af­ter­noon youth pro­gramme."

Scar­bor­ough res­i­dent Sher­wyn John con­demned the in­ci­dent, not­ing the pos­i­tive im­pact mu­sic could have on young peo­ple.

"This is some­thing for the youths, be­cause plen­ty of them re­al­ly idle. It takes up part of their recre­ation, so they can find some­thing to do. You could per­fect your tal­ent and make your­self some­body," John said.

He be­lieves peo­ple should give the steel­pan more re­spect lo­cal­ly.

"Pan is we na­tion­al in­stru­ment. Every­body in Trinidad and To­ba­go should know how to play pan."

Ef­forts to con­tact area rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ricky Joe­field were un­suc­cess­ful up to pub­li­ca­tion.

Po­lice said in­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing and an ar­rest is im­mi­nent.