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Monday, June 9, 2025

Guinness World Records makes it official: Regrello world’s longest steelpan player

by

Jesse Ramdeo
9 days ago
20250531
File: Panman Joshua Regrello during his 30-hour marathon pan session in December 2024, which set a Guinness World Record.

File: Panman Joshua Regrello during his 30-hour marathon pan session in December 2024, which set a Guinness World Record.

Pan­nist Joshua Re­grel­lo has of­fi­cial­ly been named a Guin­ness World Record hold­er for the longest marathon play­ing steel­pan, mark­ing a his­toric achieve­ment not on­ly for him­self but for Trinidad and To­ba­go’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment and cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty.

Re­grel­lo con­firmed the news yes­ter­day, fol­low­ing months of an­tic­i­pa­tion af­ter his record-set­ting per­for­mance.

In an emo­tion­al state­ment, he said, “Months ago, we came to­geth­er with one mis­sion: to make his­to­ry through the pow­er of steel­pan and uni­ty. To­day, that dream is a glob­al record.”

On Thurs­day, Re­grel­lo con­firmed that Guin­ness World Records had ap­proved his record-set­ting feat but stopped short of recog­nis­ing that it was of­fi­cial.

The steel­pan marathon, which took place back in De­cem­ber last year, cap­ti­vat­ed the coun­try and drew na­tion­al sup­port. The marathon in­volved strict doc­u­men­ta­tion and rig­or­ous stan­dards in or­der to meet the high bar set by Guin­ness World Records.

Re­grel­lo em­pha­sised the metic­u­lous na­ture of the ver­i­fi­ca­tion process, stat­ing, “The jour­ney to of­fi­cial recog­ni­tion was de­tailed. Every re­quire­ment was care­ful­ly met and every stan­dard was up­held. But one thing mat­tered most to us, that the word ‘steel­pan,’ our na­tion­al in­stru­ment and our pride, was in­clud­ed in the of­fi­cial record ti­tle. That rep­re­sen­ta­tion means every­thing, and we have ac­com­plished it.”

Be­hind the scenes, Re­grel­lo not­ed that he re­ceived crit­i­cal sup­port from his In­tel­lec­tu­al Prop­er­ty Law Con­sul­tant, Car­la Par­ris, who played a key role in co­or­di­nat­ing with Guin­ness of­fices in Mi­a­mi and Lon­don.

“I want to thank my In­tel­lec­tu­al Prop­er­ty Law Con­sul­tant @car­la_par­ris who while over­seas, li­aised with the Guin­ness World Records of­fices in Mi­a­mi and Lon­don to en­sure that we met the very high stan­dards re­quired in or­der for me to be named an Of­fi­cial Record Hold­er,” he said.

Re­grel­lo added, “To every­one who be­lieved, sup­port­ed near and far, from the ear­ly plan­ning to the fi­nal note, thank you. We have done it.”

Re­grel­lo de­scribed the record not just as a per­son­al tri­umph, but a cul­tur­al mile­stone: “This is more than a per­son­al mile­stone. This is a win for steel­pan, our cul­ture and our peo­ple. This is by all of us, for all of us.”

Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Michelle Ben­jamin de­scribed Re­grel­lo’s 31-hour per­for­mance as a col­lec­tive suc­cess. 

Pan Trin­ba­go al­so ex­tend­ed con­grat­u­la­tions to Re­grel­lo, call­ing it a vic­to­ry for the steel­pan in­dus­try.

In a Face­book, the or­gan­i­sa­tion stat­ed, “Pan Trin­ba­go con­grat­u­lates Joshua Re­grel­lo on the of­fi­cial con­fir­ma­tion of his Guin­ness World Record. This his­toric mile­stone is a win for Joshua, a win for the steel­pan, and a win for Trinidad and To­ba­go—the mec­ca of steel­pan.”


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