Dr Mar­lene Attzs

An im­por­tant el­e­ment of Car­ni­val’s trans­for­ma­tive pow­er is the steel­band and the pa­n­yard, spaces that have long been hubs of youth de­vel­op­ment, com­mu­ni­ty re­silience, and cul­tur­al pride.

The re­cent­ly con­clud­ed Schools Ju­nior Panora­ma show­cased this in full force as thou­sands of young pan­nists took to the stage, per­form­ing with a lev­el of dis­ci­pline, com­mit­ment, and skill that thrilled au­di­ences.

These young mu­si­cians rep­re­sent the fu­ture of Car­ni­val in T&T, and their par­tic­i­pa­tion in steel­bands is far more than just play­ing an in­stru­ment. They are learn­ing team­work, lead­er­ship, ded­i­ca­tion, and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty—qual­i­ties that will serve them well be­yond the pa­n­yard.

If we are tru­ly com­mit­ted to solv­ing youth crime and un­em­ploy­ment, es­pe­cial­ly in com­mu­ni­ties of­ten la­belled as crime “hotspots”, then in­vest­ing in pa­n­yards is not an ex­pense—it should be an in­te­gral part of a long-term na­tion­al and com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment strat­e­gy.

The pa­n­yard: A school

of life and dis­ci­pline

Few spaces in T&T of­fer the struc­tured yet nur­tur­ing en­vi­ron­ment that a pa­n­yard pro­vides. Con­sid­er the re­mark­able ded­i­ca­tion re­quired of these young mu­si­cians, some of whom bal­ance school­work, home chores, and long hours of prac­tise lead­ing up to Panora­ma. Un­like the stereo­type of Car­ni­val be­ing all about par­ty­ing, these chil­dren spend weeks hon­ing their craft, learn­ing com­plex mu­si­cal arrange­ments, and per­fect­ing their tim­ing and co­or­di­na­tion.

Ac­com­pa­nied by a par­ent or guardian, they show up on time, work to­geth­er, lis­ten to their sec­tion lead­ers, and re­spect their arrangers. This process is not on­ly about mu­sic; it is about de­vel­op­ing dis­ci­pline, per­se­ver­ance, and a sense of na­tion­al pride.

At Schools Ju­nior Panora­ma, this ded­i­ca­tion was on full dis­play. Imag­ine the sense of pride and ac­com­plish­ment they must have felt, know­ing that their hard work and com­mit­ment had come to­geth­er in a stun­ning per­for­mance. For these young­sters, the pa­n­yard is al­so a place of pos­i­tive so­cial­i­sa­tion. They learn the im­por­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tion and re­spect­ing au­thor­i­ty—skills that will serve them in good stead in the fu­ture.

They al­so learn that with­in the steel­band, each mem­ber is val­ued—whether as sec­tion leader, sup­port­ing har­monies, or en­sur­ing rhythm re­mains steady. They are re­spect­ed mem­bers of a team, part of some­thing big­ger than them­selves.

How many oth­er spaces in our so­ci­ety pro­vide this kind of struc­tured yet in­clu­sive en­vi­ron­ment for our youth? If we fail to pro­tect and in­vest in pa­n­yards, we are miss­ing a cru­cial op­por­tu­ni­ty to shape young minds in a way that schools alone can­not.

The so­cial and eco­nom­ic val­ue of steel­bands

Be­yond their role as com­mu­ni­ty hubs, steel­bands al­so dri­ve eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty and cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties. Steel­pan has evolved in­to an in­dus­try, pro­vid­ing jobs for arrangers, in­struc­tors, tuners, and pan stick mak­ers. Steel­bands per­form in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, bring­ing glob­al recog­ni­tion to T&T while cre­at­ing eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ties for mu­si­cians.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, steel­bands gen­er­ate em­ploy­ment across mul­ti­ple sec­tors; they re­quire lo­gis­tics teams, trans­port providers, and sound en­gi­neers—all of whom ben­e­fit eco­nom­i­cal­ly from Panora­ma and the wider Car­ni­val sea­son. More­over, steel­bands cre­ate pos­i­tive so­cial mo­bil­i­ty, es­pe­cial­ly for young peo­ple who might oth­er­wise lack di­rec­tion—pa­n­yards can pro­vide re­al path­ways to em­ploy­ment and achieve­ment.

Cor­po­rate spon­sor­ship

and steel­bands: ESG op­por­tu­ni­ties

Steel­bands and pa­n­yards have long ben­e­fit­ted from cor­po­rate spon­sor­ship that has, in many cas­es, evolved in­to a strate­gic in­vest­ment in com­mu­ni­ties. Com­pa­nies that en­gage in En­vi­ron­men­tal, So­cial, and Gov­er­nance (ESG) ini­tia­tives have a unique op­por­tu­ni­ty to part­ner with steel­bands in ways that cre­ate last­ing im­pact.

Cor­po­rate spon­sors can sup­port year-round youth de­vel­op­ment by ex­pand­ing mu­sic ed­u­ca­tion pro­grammes in pa­n­yards, of­fer­ing lead­er­ship train­ing, busi­ness man­age­ment work­shops, and ca­reer guid­ance. Spon­sors’ fi­nan­cial sup­port al­so al­lows for up­grad­ed pa­n­yards that are safe, well-equipped spaces for learn­ing and men­tor­ship.

Sev­er­al lo­cal com­pa­nies have demon­strat­ed how sus­tained cor­po­rate in­vest­ment can trans­form steel­bands in­to thriv­ing in­sti­tu­tions. Their sup­port for bands, some span­ning sev­er­al decades, has helped some steel­band or­ches­tras be­come self-suf­fi­cient, com­mu­ni­ty-fo­cused and sus­tain­able en­ti­ties. If more com­pa­nies fol­low this mod­el, per­haps we can see ad­di­tion­al pa­n­yards evolve in­to struc­tured com­mu­ni­ty cen­tres that pro­vide men­tor­ship, life skills train­ing, and eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ties, among oth­er ben­e­fits.

An in­vest­ment,

not an ex­pense

For those who dis­miss Car­ni­val and steel­pan as mere en­ter­tain­ment or of lit­tle “val­ue”, con­sid­er this: How of­ten do we see youth in the pub­lic sphere, some as young as nine, will­ing­ly ded­i­cat­ing them­selves to in­tense dis­ci­pline, team­work, and ex­cel­lence? If we are se­ri­ous about tack­ling youth crime and un­em­ploy­ment, then we must pri­ori­tise spaces that pos­i­tive­ly en­gage young peo­ple. Pa­n­yards do ex­act­ly this—keep­ing youth off the streets, de­vel­op­ing their tal­ents, and in­still­ing val­ues of hard work, re­spect, and lead­er­ship. In­stead of ques­tion­ing whether Car­ni­val is “worth the cost,” we should be ask­ing: Can we af­ford NOT to in­vest in it?

A song of pride

and pos­si­bil­i­ty

David Rud­der’s 1993 song Ded­i­ca­tion re­minds us: “This praise song was writ­ten for the pan­man to all those who’ve shown their ded­i­ca­tion … Out of yes­ter­day’s re­jec­tion, on­ward to a new per­fec­tion … From a hunger came a feel, from that feel, we shaped the steel.”

The sto­ry of steel­pan and pa­n­yards is a na­tion­al suc­cess in dis­ci­pline, trans­for­ma­tion, youth em­pow­er­ment, and eco­nom­ic sus­tain­abil­i­ty. The Sa­van­nah Par­ty, a sig­na­ture Car­ni­val event, unites T&T in the shared rhythm of our cul­ture.

More than a fes­ti­val, Car­ni­val is an in­vest­ment in our peo­ple, com­mu­ni­ties, and fu­ture, with po­ten­tial as deep as the seas that sur­round us.