Young says steelband cuts show ongoing attack on culture

Port-of-Spain North/St Ann's East MP, Stu­art Young, says the de­ci­sion by Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed to end spon­sor­ship of Skif­fle Bunch Steel Or­ches­tra and Siparia Del­tones Steel Or­ches­tra forms part of what he calls an on­go­ing pat­tern of re­duced sup­port for steel­bands.

Her­itage yes­ter­day is­sued a let­ter to Skif­fle Bunch in­di­cat­ing that its spon­sor­ship will end on 27 De­cem­ber 2025. The com­pa­ny said it ap­pre­ci­at­ed the part­ner­ship and the work done by the band but not­ed that the de­ci­sion fol­lowed in­ter­nal re­view. Her­itage al­so asked that use of its name and lo­go be dis­con­tin­ued.

Young says the move fol­lows ear­li­er de­ci­sions by Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny to end as­sis­tance to three steel­bands. He says the ac­tions im­pact the na­tion­al in­stru­ment and the wider pan move­ment. Young says the de­ci­sions raise ques­tions about the ap­proach of the cur­rent gov­ern­ment and calls on the au­thor­i­ties to ex­plain the rea­sons.

Young says steel­bands have main­tained strong com­mu­ni­ty links and have sup­port­ed na­tion­al events. He says the end­ing of spon­sor­ship agree­ments af­fects the bands and re­lat­ed pro­grammes. Young says the is­sue re­quires pub­lic at­ten­tion and calls for a re­view of state en­ter­prise sup­port for cul­tur­al groups.

Skif­fle Bunch says it has not­ed the no­tice from Her­itage and will meet to dis­cuss the next steps. Siparia Del­tones is al­so ex­pect­ed to ad­dress the is­sue. Both bands have long­stand­ing in­volve­ment in na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions and com­mu­ni­ty ac­tiv­i­ty.

Young says he will con­tin­ue to raise the mat­ter and will re­quest up­dates from the com­pa­nies in­volved.