Wes­ley Gib­bings

Some of the na­tion’s top ju­nior steel­bands will con­verge on the grounds of San Juan North Sec­ondary School on Sep­tem­ber 27 for a Youth Steel­pan Jam­boree de­scribed by the school’s Mu­sic De­part­ment as “a plat­form for emerg­ing steel­pan mu­si­cians.”

Win­ners of the 2025 Sec­ondary Schools Panora­ma, Bish­ops and Trin­i­ty Col­lege East (BATCE) will be among the bands in at­ten­dance, along­side this year’s fi­nal­ists, QRC/Prov­i­dence and oth­er keen, peren­ni­al com­peti­tors.

These in­clude St George’s Col­lege, Tu­na­puna Tipi­ca, Ari­ma An­gel Harps Ju­niors, Tran­quil­li­ty and Bel­mont Sec­ondary, and hosts San Juan North Sec­ondary.

The school sees the event as pro­vid­ing “a vi­brant space for young mu­si­cians to per­form con­tem­po­rary mu­sic, con­nect with peers from oth­er bands, and en­joy the rich sounds of steel­pan.”

Since its es­tab­lish­ment in the mid-1980s, the school band has had a busy sched­ule—plac­ing fourth in the Ju­nior Panora­ma Com­pe­ti­tion of 2014 and, fol­low­ing a ten-year break from com­pe­ti­tion, pos­ing keen chal­lenges in 2024 and 2025.

Mu­sic teacher, Jho­van Scant­er­bury, says: “Mu­sic teach­es dis­ci­pline, pa­tience, and per­se­ver­ance, but it al­so nur­tures cre­ativ­i­ty and self-con­fi­dence.”

In ad­di­tion to the per­for­mance el­e­ment of the Jam­boree, there will be a “Pan­KNOWrama” quiz, which will re­quire band mem­bers to an­swer ques­tions based on the his­to­ry of the steel­pan and suc­ces­sive Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tions.

Scant­er­bury says this brings an added flavour to the Jam­boree and will chal­lenge play­ers with much more than their play­ing skills.

This fundrais­ing event will al­so fea­ture a live­ly bazaar with ex­cit­ing stalls, such as Tin Pan Al­ley, Mi­ni Foot­ball, Hoopla, and many more at­trac­tions.

“It promis­es to be a day filled with mu­sic, laugh­ter, and com­mu­ni­ty spir­it—where the sweet sound of pan meets the ex­cite­ment of games, food, and fun. Bring your fam­i­ly, bring your friends, and don’t miss this cel­e­bra­tion of youth, tal­ent, and Trinidad and To­ba­go’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment!” Scant­er­bury says.

There re­main spon­sor­ship slots open to in­ter­est­ed cor­po­rate en­ti­ties and Scant­er­bury can be con­tact­ed for de­tails at 789-9498 or san­juan­north­steel@gmail.com

San Juan Se­nior Com­pre­hen­sive School of­fi­cial­ly opened its doors to stu­dents on Sep­tem­ber 3, 1979, shar­ing premis­es with El Do­ra­do Se­nior Com­pre­hen­sive School. At that time, the stu­dent pop­u­la­tion con­sist­ed of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 400 Form Four stu­dents.