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Patrick Arnold,
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Date: 1.29.04
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Patrick Arnold, president of Pan Trinbago, earlier today [Thursday 29 January] chatted with When Steel Talks and spoke on several issues including the preliminary Panorama judging starting today in Trinidad and Tobago in small, medium and conventional band categories - with three panels going out to respective Panyards throughout the country to adjudicate in the three categories. Arnold touched on the conditions under which some 8,000 Pan players have been preparing for the Panorama season - including long arduous hours of practice into the early hours of the morning, on a nightly basis until competition time, that payment for their time and energy was as always not possible, and only partial funding was made available by the Trinidad and Tobago government despite the Panorama events being a key part of the annual carnival festivities which bring in about TT $600 million. The lack of proper acoustically sound facilities for the staging of the national panorama along with other steel pan activities throughout the year including the biennial World Music Festival, was also expanded on during the interview. The Pan Trinbago president also explained the rationale behind the new arrangements for the national Panorama competition i.e. the introduction of the small, medium and large categories with Championship prizes monies each in the amount of TT $100,000.00, TT $140,000.00 and TT $200,000.00 respectively. With the Panorama finals on Saturday February 21 Arnold expressed confidence that with sixteen bands performing at the Panorama finals (medium and large categories) and the reduced performance time of eight minutes, the Panorama competition would be completed in the scheduled show time from 7:00 PM to Midnight. A positive update on the condition of ace arranger Len 'Boogsie' Sharpe who recently underwent surgery was part of the news shared with the global pan community, as well as the ability of people aboard to purchase tickets in advance of the Panorama events to be held at the Queen's Park Savannah. He additionally extended an invitation for all to go to Trinidad and Tobago for the 2004 Panorama festival.
By
CP - Basement Press |
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| Pan New York |