The sweet strains of cu­a­tro, mara­cas and box bass filled the air at El Do­ra­do East Sec­ondary School as young per­form­ers from across Trinidad and To­ba­go gath­ered for the Na­tion­al Parang As­so­ci­a­tion’s So­mos Un So­lo Pueblo—Ju­nior Parang Fes­ti­val and Com­pe­ti­tion 2025. Held over two days, No­vem­ber 15 and 16, the fes­ti­val drew 40 schools—25 pri­ma­ry and 15 sec­ondary—all ea­ger to show­case their tal­ent, cul­tur­al pride and deep­en­ing love for parang.

For NPATT, the fes­ti­val is far more than a com­pe­ti­tion. It is the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s most im­por­tant in­vest­ment in the next gen­er­a­tion of par­ran­deros.

“This is where friend­ships be­gin, cul­tures con­nect, and our young peo­ple dis­cov­er the rhythm that has shaped so much of who we are,” NPATT’s youth of­fi­cer, Joseph Bertrand, not­ed as he wel­comed pa­trons to the event.

This year’s edi­tion marked a re­newed sense of or­gan­i­sa­tion and in­no­va­tion. NPATT in­tro­duced dig­i­tal reg­is­tra­tion for the first time, mod­ernising the en­try process for teach­ers and cul­tur­al of­fi­cers. The as­so­ci­a­tion al­so rein­tro­duced chal­lenge tro­phies for both pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary cat­e­gories and launched a new Peo­ple’s Choice Award, giv­ing au­di­ences a di­rect say in the cel­e­bra­tions.

The fes­ti­val’s theme—So­mos Un So­lo Pueblo (“We Are One Vil­lage”)—was a fit­ting re­flec­tion of the ca­ma­raderie and cul­tur­al uni­ty on dis­play through­out the week­end.

The pri­ma­ry school com­pe­ti­tion on No­vem­ber 15 was a live­ly af­fair, with chil­dren per­form­ing one piece each be­fore a packed au­di­ence that in­clud­ed par­ents, alum­ni and proud com­mu­ni­ty sup­port­ers. Per­for­mances were judged on ad­her­ence to parang style and tra­di­tion, in­stru­men­tal ac­com­pa­ni­ment, arrange­ment, lyrics and stage pre­sen­ta­tion.

Mor­vant An­gli­can Pri­ma­ry emerged tri­umphant as the 2025 Pri­ma­ry School Parang cham­pi­ons, im­press­ing ad­ju­di­ca­tors with their mu­si­cal au­then­tic­i­ty and spir­it­ed per­for­mance. Sa­cred Heart Girls’ RC claimed sec­ond place, fol­lowed by Ari­ma Boys’ RC in third. Sa­cred Heart Girls’ RC al­so won the Peo­ple’s Choice Award for the pri­ma­ry di­vi­sion.

Sec­ondary schools took the stage on No­vem­ber 16, de­liv­er­ing two se­lec­tions each and demon­strat­ing the ma­tu­ri­ty and skill that con­tin­ues to el­e­vate youth parang. In one of the most mem­o­rable out­comes in re­cent years, Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege and Bish­op Anstey High School (BAHS)—per­form­ing as a com­bined unit—tied for first place with St Joseph’s Con­vent, St Joseph. Both en­sem­bles im­pressed with their vo­cal blend, cre­ative arrange­ments, and mas­tery of tra­di­tion­al in­stru­men­ta­tion.

St Joseph’s Con­vent, St Joseph, al­so swept the Peo­ple’s Choice Award for the sec­ondary cat­e­go­ry, ce­ment­ing their pop­u­lar­i­ty with the au­di­ence.

Be­yond the mu­sic, the fes­ti­val fea­tured the Icon Pre­sen­ta­tion seg­ment, where stu­dents re­searched and cre­ative­ly re-en­act­ed the lives and con­tri­bu­tions of parang leg­ends. This the­atri­cal com­po­nent added depth and cul­tur­al ed­u­ca­tion to the event, merg­ing drama­ti­za­tion, mu­sic and sto­ry­telling.

For 2025, St Fran­cois Girls’ Col­lege emerged as the Icon Pre­sen­ta­tion win­ner, win­ning high praise for their en­gag­ing, well-re­searched per­for­mance.

Through­out the week­end, the venue buzzed with the ex­cite­ment of fam­i­lies, cul­ture lovers and sup­port­ers. Food stalls, craft ven­dors and in­stru­ment mak­ers cre­at­ed a fes­tive at­mos­phere, while stu­dents from var­i­ous schools—many meet­ing for the first time—shared mu­sic, con­ver­sa­tions and rhythms be­hind the scenes.

Ac­cord­ing to NPATT, the Ju­nior Parang Fes­ti­val is part of a broad­er mis­sion to deep­en young peo­ple’s con­nec­tion to cul­tur­al her­itage. The as­so­ci­a­tion sees parang as a gate­way to learn­ing not on­ly mu­sic but al­so Span­ish, his­to­ry and com­mu­ni­ty val­ues.

“Every year we see the tal­ent, dis­ci­pline and joy these chil­dren bring,” Bertrand said. “They are car­ry­ing the sto­ry for­ward.”