The Steelband Champions prize distribution ceremony turned political as Pan Trinbago president Beverley Ramsey-Moore pledged her support to Prime Minister Stuart Young, and Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Randall Mitchell encouraged members to support the government that did much for the steelpan movement.
Speaking at the event at Radisson Hotel, Port of Spain, on April 15, Ramsey-Moore thanked Young, whose father, she said, paved the way for him as a “pan jumbie.”
She said when Richard Young was managing director of Scotiabank, he and Keith Simpson, Scotiabank’s former manager of retail and small business and former president of Pan Trinbago, ensured unsponsored bands received a grant ever year.
“Your father was there for over 65 steelbands every year. And so he sowed the seeds so that today you could reap the benefits of the steelband community by supporting you in the fight (the general election.)”
She said Pan Trinbago paid attention to which leaders in society support it and they saw him. She said because of that, Pan Trinbago knows he was a leader who was on the ground and who was concerned about the “grassroots young people.”
Ramsey-Moore also expressed gratitude to former PM Dr Keith Rowley and all he did for the steelpan movement over the past two years, such as encouraging the organisation to revive the National Steelband Music Festival after an 11-year hiatus, putting pan on the coat of arms, getting it formally declared the country’s national instrument and encouraging the United Nations to declare August 11 World Steelpan Day.
“Pan is more than the music, pan is a social force. It impacts our lives, our communities and therefore, we are extremely important to TT.”
Thanking the government and corporate sponsors for their support, she said $4.9 million in prize money was distributed to the 2024 National Steelband Music Festival winners and $14.6 million for the Junior and Senior Panorama competitions.
But, she said, Pan Trinbago asked for an increase in prize money when it submitted its 2026 budget to the National Carnival Commission.
Mitchell said the government worked with Pan Trinbago to make a World Steelpan Festival, make the movement attractive enough to corporate stakeholders to get involved in the movement and get intellectual property for the steelpan.
Government financial support for steelpan also increased this year. Sixty unsponsored steelbands got $10,000, an increase from $7,000; 89 conventional bands got $20,000, up from $15,000; and remittances to all the players who participated in Panorama 2025 were increased from $500 to $800.
A total of $25 million in prize money and remittances were distributed.
Mitchell said the event was a celebration of the winners, and all that was accomplished in the steelpan movement through hard work and accountability, good governance and partnership.
“There is a lot more that we must accomplish. Give us the opportunity to continue to build upon what we have been doing together.”
In his address, Young said citizens shou
