Baltimore - The sixth annual Harbor View Festival featuring the Pan On The Move pan jamboree was held last weekend [July 8/9] at Reedbird Park in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.  The festival, sponsored by the Baltimore Education and Cultural Institute Inc. a Baltimore based non-profit organization, is Baltimore’s premiere venue for steel pan music enthusiasts.  This year’s Pan On the Move participants included the Philadelphia Pan Stars, Harbor Knights Youth Steel Orchestra, Harmony Uprising Steel Orchestra, Pan Jammers Steel Orchestra, Higher Levin Steel Orchestra and defending champs, the St Veronicas Youth Steel Orchestra.  Under blue, sunny skies, the attendants were treated to two sessions of music from each band, vying for the Carlos Lezama Challenge Trophy.  First time competitors and the youngest competitors, Harbor Knights Youth Steel Orchestra of Baltimore’s Cherry Hill community finished third in this year’s challenge and the defending champs St. Veronicas Youth Steel Orchestra retained their top place finish.  Although the end result of the competition phase was clearly not what the audience [nor band members] expected, the day itself was fun filled and truly enjoyable featuring great steel pan music.  

 

            The continued success of this year’s festival means that next year’s celebration will be just as fun filled and plans are to make it bigger and better. Everyone agrees that this event has a huge growth potential and lots of supports are committed to assisting in the 2007 event.  We extend hearty congratulations to Mr. Carl Merez and the staff of the Baltimore Educational and Cultural Institute [www.becinet.org] for their dedication and hard work that was needed to stage this event.  Proceeds from the event support the continuance of BECI Inc.’s cultural arts programs serving the youth of Baltimore City through music.  The 2007 event will be held on July 14th & 15th…. See you then!

 

2006,
Kim Trueheart