AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

Thou­sands poured in­to the cap­i­tal on Wednes­day for the fi­nal leg of the pre­lim­i­nary “pan crawl,” as steel­pan rhythms rolled through Port-of-Spain, once again af­firm­ing its place as the na­tion’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment.

The North­ern Re­gion Na­tion­al Large Con­ven­tion­al Band Pre­lim­i­nar­ies kicked off at the Massy Trinidad All Stars Steel Or­ches­tra com­pound on Duke Street. Though sched­uled to be­gin at 7 pm, late ar­rivals by judges, Pan Trin­ba­go ex­ec­u­tives and oth­er stake­hold­ers de­layed pro­ceed­ings.

At 7:45 pm, the first note was struck, and the de­lay did lit­tle to dull the at­mos­phere. Steel­pan play­ers were high-spir­it­ed, with every move and ex­pres­sion keep­ing the au­di­ence en­gaged well in­to the night.

While heavy traf­fic gripped the cap­i­tal as a mas­sive con­voy moved be­tween pa­n­yards, along with live­ly en­ter­tain­ment at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, it all added to the Car­ni­val buzz.

One af­ter the oth­er, pa­n­yard af­ter pa­n­yard, the crowd num­bers grew.

From Massy Trinidad All Stars to BP Rene­gades Steel Or­ches­tra, Nu­trien Sil­ver Stars, Shell In­vaders, Phase II Pan Groove, Pro­man Star­lift Steel Or­ches­tra and then Des­per­a­does Steel Or­ches­tra — each stop drew fresh waves of on­look­ers and ex­cite­ment.

The com­pe­ti­tion was stiff, with each band boast­ing its ac­co­lades and his­to­ry. The ri­val­ry was fierce, but ca­ma­raderie pre­vailed, as ri­val steel­bands vis­it­ed each oth­er and cheered on their fel­low pan­nists.

Present at each of the sev­en pa­n­yards were Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin and Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ly Ram­sey-Moore, joined by mem­bers of the diplo­mat­ic corps, who trad­ed busi­ness suits for re­laxed at­tire in prepa­ra­tion for the long night ahead.

Ul­ti­mate­ly, it was the crowd that pow­ered the buzz of the cap­i­tal — peo­ple young and old soak­ing in the elec­tri­fy­ing ac­tion.

“I had to be here — how yuh mean? That’s our cul­ture. Peo­ple love it. You see the at­mos­phere tonight, it’s great, won­der­ful, awe­some,” said 63-year-old Jen­nifer Charles.

For Nu­trien Sil­ver Stars steel­pan play­er D’An­dre Reyes, prepa­ra­tion meant long, ex­haust­ing nights of prac­tice, but he wouldn’t change a thing.

“The mu­sic it­self — when you play­ing it — it does just feel good and you does nev­er wan­na stop,” the 18-year-old said.

Vis­i­tors al­so joined the cel­e­bra­tion. Trinidad-born Ronald Wayne Co­zi­er, now liv­ing in Cal­i­for­nia, said re­turn­ing home for Car­ni­val and ex­pe­ri­enc­ing the pan crawl de­fines the phrase “liv­ing the life.”

“Love the pan! You got to lis­ten to it, en­joy it. If you want to see the great­est thing on earth, be here,” Co­zi­er said.

UK na­tive Dr Cather­ine Minto-Bain, who has made Trinidad her adopt­ed home, said the thrill of steel­pan nev­er fades, even soft­en­ing her loy­al­ties be­tween bands.

“Steel­pan makes the hairs on your arms stand up when they re­al­ly play amaz­ing­ly. All Stars I think are my favourite, but In­vaders are do­ing well,” Dr Minto-Bain said.

The fi­nal band, Des­per­a­does Steel Or­ches­tra, wrapped up its per­for­mance just af­ter 1:30 am on Thurs­day, leav­ing spec­ta­tors phys­i­cal­ly drained but deeply sat­is­fied by the qual­i­ty of per­for­mances wit­nessed.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ly Ram­sey-Moore de­scribed the night as a dream for steel­band lovers, not­ing larg­er-than-usu­al crowds at every pa­n­yard.

“I’m lost for words. The bands were dif­fer­ent. This year is so high — the arrange­ments. I don’t know what’s hap­pen­ing in 2026, but I can’t wait for the Sa­van­nah par­ty [se­mi-fi­nals]. We on­ly have a few tick­ets left for North Stand, so I know that Sun­day is go­ing to be mas­sive.”

Of­fi­cial Re­sults and Se­mi Fi­nal­ists- Large Con­ven­tion­al Bands 2026

1st – BP Rene­gades Steel Or­ches­tra – 281

2nd – Re­pub­lic Bank Ex­o­dus Steel Or­ches­tra – 278.5

3rd – Massy Trinidad All Stars Steel Or­ches­tra – 278

4th – Phase II Pan Groove – 277.5

5th (tie) – Nu­trien Sil­ver Stars Steel Or­ches­tra – 277

5th (tie) – Des­per­a­does Steel Or­ches­tra – 277

7th (tie) – Shell In­vaders Steel Or­ches­tra – 273

7th (tie) – Skif­fle Steel Or­ches­tra – 273

7th (tie) – T&TEC An­gel Harps Steel Or­ches­tra – 273

7th (tie) – Pro­man Star­lift Steel Or­ches­tra – 273

11th – NL­CB Fon­claire Steel Or­ches­tra – 272

12th (tie) – First Cit­i­zens Su­per­novas Steel Or­ches­tra – 271

12th (tie) – Katzen­jam­mers Steel Or­ches­tra – 271

14th – NL­CB Buc­coon­ers Steel Or­ches­tra – 269

15th – RBC Re­demp­tion Sound Set­ters Steel Or­ches­tra – 267

16th – Siparia Del­tones Steel Or­ches­tra – 265

17th – Har­monites Steel Or­ches­tra – 259