Panweekend 2006 - Dortmund's 2nd Annual Steelpan Festival

Germany - Dortmund, Germany is the place to be this weekend as its annual steelpan festival gets underway. PanWeekend 2006 will take place for the second consecutive year and the venue is Dortmund's Solendo beach.

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The 2005 steelpan festival featured one week of events and performances. According to WerNer Weidensdorfer whose steelband club, PanKultur organized and hosts the festival, overwhelming response to the first festival led to the decision to try to make it an annual event. The key difference this time around is the shortened format - one weekend instead of one week. Last year, the event coincided with and became a fitting tribute to the 10th anniversary of the existence of PanKultur.

On Friday March 24 Germany's youngest pan players - PanKids from Dortmund - will be in the spotlight from 1:00 PM as they open up PanWeekend 2006 which promises to be another music-filled event. A mammoth showing of one hundred enthusiastic children from eight of Dortmund's elementary schools - about ten years of age and who practice once per week - is expected to set the pace for the rest of the pan performers to follow over the weekend.

The Friday afternoon agenda includes other pan performances as well as a steelpan manufacturing and tuning demonstration by pan tuner Eckhard C. Schulz. The event's evening schedule will feature two renowned ensembles - the Bima quintet and Samuel Dubois & the Ebony Quintet.

WerNer told When Steel Talks that there is contact on a yearly basis with London's Nostalgia Steel Orchestra through their Nottinghill celebrations, and they are one of the guests for the steelpan festival. Sterling Betancourt is also expected.

Saturday March 25 is expected to be cold but sunny, and WerNer says things are in place for the highly-anticipated street parade by Nostalgia's and Bäng Bäng's pan round de neck sides through the city of Dortmund. Caribbean Night brings the curtains down on the steelpan festival; Bäng Bäng steel orchestra, London's Ebony steel orchestra and Nostalgia will all end off another memorable pan event in Dortmund. For more info visit their web site at http://www.pan-kultur.de/