by Nestor Sullivan 

Global - This year, 2010, steelbands in England participating in the Panorama at the Notting Hill Carnival, played for free. That is, the bands received no monies for appearance fees or for prizes. It is reported that this was due to the economic melt-down now being experienced in that country.

According to Nestor Sullivan, manager of Trinidad and Tobago’s Pamberi Steel Orchestra, all the territories where an annual steelband Panorama is held, tend to follow the lead of Trinidad and Tobago, whose nationals dominate the technical and related sides of most of the events. The country’s nationals have transported the Panorama to territories around the world, creating a potential global industry in the process. Nonetheless, contends Sullivan, we are now experiencing the rapid demise of the Panorama, the biggest event on global steelband calendars.


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  • What would happen if there was a mass boycott of Carnival and Panorama in the US - the UK and Canada.......for 1 year - Can you imagine what would happen to the money that traditionally goes to the cities - I bet a few city officials would stop and think??????
  • Good morning Everyone:

    A big problem with Caribbean and especially Black Folks is that we tend to depend on the crumbs which fall from the table of the extremely delicious finger-licking dinner which we've just prepared.

    Everything is political.

    As long as we continue to beggggg for handouts, instead of combine our resources (Pan Yards, Mas Camps, vendors, masqueraders, organizers, promoters, and spectators) and engage in constructive DEMANDS at the negotiating table of those who control the purse strings, then we'll continually be disrespected and financially disenfranchised by especially those politicians, who control the $$$$$$. Elected and appointed officials know exactly how much $$$ is generated by these Carnivals. Organizers and participants must demand to see the Books to determine how much income these events generate for each city/county/state? They have the figures. We need to have them in our possessions so we can use these figures to make our demands on how some of those funds can be best utilized to benefit our communities.

    3 million people have been gathering on Eastern Parkway for over thirty years, if each person on The Parkway spent (let's say $100) to attend the many parties, fetes, Museum events, Kiddies Carnival, and the Parade of the Bands, then you're talking about $300 million dollars.

    Now this is an extremely conservative estimate as you can well imagine. Why? Because I've not included plane, train, and bus fares of those coming from other states and nations. What about hotel and other travel expenses such as car rentals, gas, and subway fares?

    With 3 million on The Parkway, why is the subway system running on a Sunday schedule?

    What about the amount of food and drink consumed by these visitors during their stay?

    We are in a very powerful financial position to make demands on these politicians, but we do not maximize on our potential. Why the politicians? Practically every office holder in NY State appear on The Parkway, especially during the election season. And what do they do? Smile and wave. Why should they lead off the parade? Why aren't these politicians jumping and waving in the bands?

    Unless we hold these office holders financially accountable for the success of these Carnivals, then we have no one else to blame but ourselves for the demise or failures of these festivities.

    NYC has double-decker buses which tour throughout the City. Why aren't we reaching out to these bus companies to include the Pan Yards, Mas Camps and even the Backyard of the Museum in their routes?

    In my opinion, over $1 billion is raised during the Labor Day season, with the City appreciating at least 5% in tax revenues. Then why don't the Pan Yards and Mas Camps own their own buildings? Considering the current economic climate, why aren't buildings being made available to the Pan Yards and Mas Camps with City, State and Federal funding to minimize their purchasing and upkeep expenditures?

    As long as we continue to play softball with these politicians, then there is no way on God's green earth that we can ever make it to the World Series. So you're a Soccer fan? If we continue to play small goal post games, how can we ever expect to play in the World Cup? Only after we've raised our goals, ambitions, and expectations, can these Carnivals prosper.

    Thanks for your interest, and please remember to tune into my program on Monday, November 15th, 3-5 am on 99.5 FM in the NY Tri-State area or log onto www.wbai.org.

    Stephen The Road Warrior
    • Hi there Stephen, all of your points are well stated and well taken. Please note that this is not a direct response to your comments. This is just a general observation. We keep on missing the point and I keep on harping on the same old refrain. WE NEED TO GET ORGANIZED. We need to understand how the system works and then adapt strategies that will make the system works for us. You have to understand that if a politician can do dirt in the dark, especially when money is being made, he will do more dirt that you would imagine. The moment that you shine a light on his actions, he is forced to come clean. Most of the comments that we get on discourses such as this one, is noting more than emotioms without the benefit of intellect. Something goes down and we get this knee-jerk reaction of individuals calling for a boycott and the rest of the bush-league tatics. We will be having this same discussion, fighting these same old battles for the next hundred years, until we get organized. Here is some food for thought. What do you think would happen if someone would take the time to put a petition together stating our case, and we hit the pavement in our spare time and gather a few thousand signatures, make an appointment to go meet with the mayor and send a delegation to go meet with him? In the mean time send an annonymous tip to the media stating what is going on. What would happen if we do the same with the Governor. We are all tax-payers, they would be forced to pay attention to our plight. What would happen if we get a police permit to have a major rally and all steelband gather in a park with placards, banners etc and present ourselves as a united front to be reckoned with. The media coverage alone would force them to pay attention. This is the type of engagement we need for us to be taken seriously. Just coming into this forum, airing our views and get frustrated is NOT going to get it done. PS please dump the emotions and approach situations with a rational thought pattern.
  • I had originally posted this on my WST page as a commentary during the recent Toronto civic elections. It's very relevant to this blog, so I've added it below with the 'vote for me' parts removed.

    Hi, Folks!

    One of my personal concerns as a steel pan player in a city that honours Carnival with three major parades and more than a week of celebration and competitions --with people from all over the world attending-- is what's going on between city administrations all over North America and West Indian community Carnival organizers in terms of acknowledgement and funding. You've read the reports in the "Pan Times" and "When Steel Talks". (Since writing this, I've noticed that the problem is more world-wide than I had previously been aware of.)

    Clearly many US cities do not understand the value Carnival celebrations bring them. Recently, we've had problems organizing Carifiesta in Montreal. Whether they're called Panorama, Caribfest, Caribana, Carifiesta, or Carnival, the celebrations are an enormous source of wealth to any city so fortunate as to have a community active enough to organize this event. And fun? Where else can an entire city get involved in jumping up and celebration?

    Toronto's difficulties with our own Caribana every August revolve mainly around funding. While every tourist venue (hotels, restaurants and night clubs, shops) benefits from the attending crowds in the downtown core where the festival is held, literally none of the extra millions of dollars in earnings gained by those businesses (except the individual vendors licenced by the city to sell knick-knacks, crafts, and West Indian foods) makes its way back to the festival treasury.

    In Toronto, we have a King and Queen, Caribana, Junior Caribana, and Samba parades, and Pan Alive [our Panorama steel band play-off] along with a week of stage shows all over the city and Limin' together at a huge picnic on the Toronto Islands. We call it Toronto Caribana. [To paraphrase When Steel Talks, "When Toronto hosts Caribana, EVERYBODY comes out to celebrate!"]

    I think that the city should apply a special tax on tourist venues in the downtown core, with a clause that prevents them from raising their rates (any more than they have historically for large events) to cover the new tax, so that visitors don't get hit with it; and that the city set that money aside to support the mas bands and Caribana events from a city-managed fund as advised by the organizers.

    ...and for the purposes of this page, I'll add...

    Moreover, as Caribana and other cultural, religious, various secular, and fine arts celebrations are an important part of Toronto life, I propose the establishment of an incorporated city Celebration Commission with a board of governors gleaned from the celebration communities in the cultural and fine arts, with an appointed member of council and the Mayor as principal members, responsible to the city to ensure the successful promotion, staging and funding of all celebrations, parades, and festivals.

    Toronto loves and cherishes its multiculturalism. It has recently been heralded as the most multi-cultural city in the world. Our multi-cultural and other similar celebrations are extremely well-attended.

    The city boasts three arts nights celebrations, several large annual parades ranging from religious origins (Sikh and Christian-origin celebrations being the largest), to civic holiday parades, an annual cleanup-the-city day, and the Caribana festival and parade grouping. We used to have an annual "Toronto Caravan" festival celebrating the city's vast wealth of varied cultures with private groups of people from each country of origin sponsoring a 'pavilion' featuring their cuisine, arts & crafts, dance, and a 'king and queen', Visitors would purchase a 'passport' that entitled them to ride free on the city buses that ran continually between the pavilions, and get it stamped at each pavilion they visited to keep as a souvenir of the visit; and that might be brought back by a commission as well. We even have a separate annual Trinidad & Tobago celebration in the park adjoining the Ontario legislature buildings, which are located in Toronto.

    The point is not just that generally unrelated businesses gain exclusively from the festivals, and that's not an equitable situation; but also that the city benefits from maintaining them in a dozen different ways. Our various festivals require a fair special-tax-subsidized funding in whatever manner is necessary to ensure celebrations represent a good time with happy celebrants all-round. A commission can set up the bureaucracy necessary to smooth the way to successful events, open them for continued growth, and make that required funding a certainty.

    I would recommend that other cities consider this path of encouragement for their similar celebrations as a means of capitalizing them without increasing the existing tax burden. The rewards for host cities are self-evident.
  • Talk, talk and more taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalk where are the CD's and DVD's for the 2010 New York Panorama this is the internet age Panorama has a PRODUCT all you bright people develop a Business plan and make some money.
    • Andre the New York 2010 Panorama DVD was available less than 24 hours after the panorama. You can purchase a copy from WIADCA.
      • So how can we be sure the panist will get the majority of the money from the sale of these DVDs?
        Why isn't Basement Recordings doing an audio CD?
        From what I heard on the night I would not consider the audio quality from WIADCA the best on the night.
        Maybe the internet stream was not the best medium to replicate the sound of barrel.

        RandiSC
      • And it's not even advertised or promoted on this forum.

        Interesting.
  • big sands you are funny, a 9 bass finals lmao, but seriuosly one year they gave out prizes in certain areas like best dressed, best flag waver, best rythym section and the standards in those areas were lifted, I already suggested that the panorama be changed to a festival and have it like an awards night, and that night you have best tenor section best whatever section, best arrangement best, perfromance, best interpretation, the arguments will never be settled people argue on the basis of music mainly, but the contest is on several elements, plus the judges hear the band itself whilst the audience hears the sound system, which can make a difference, the players are fierce but not loving the music, I wish i had a tape of a new york panorama where you could hear a lady mouting the repeat of a part just after she shouted oh goooush! them days gone when panorama was an assult on the senses as Dalton Narine once described it, the hype still there, it is still in a small community, inspite of the large following of Jimmy Buffet, where a lot of people get to hear Robert greenidge it is still in a relatively small circle, we need to polish up on our presentation, if i were playing a timbales people would not bug me to try it, respect will make them resist, those who get lucky to see how pan is made usually have respect for it, but most people look at as a novelty a play thing, because pan hardly shows up in too many grand events,some rappers use electronically created noises that sound like pan and the childish presentation makes people think it is a toy, we hold grand events and do not try to involve the external community, not invite dignatries,if pan was a Jamaican thing it would be out there because Jamaica pushes it self, they push so hard that most of us caribbean people are allways asked if we from jamaica, because Jamaica made them selves visible,there are some non caribbean people trying to make it visible but pan by sound has a strong caribbean accent, and will not change,we need to be handing out instead of waiting for handouts, what we need to hand out invitations, history, promotions etc basically we have to push harder, bands in the states are no longer trying to make an outreach into their communities instead they import players from TnT
  • just a few hours ago I was asked by sevral persond about the pan , "what is it called?" I proudly said STEEL PAN, and the mother who was with her kids said is that P-A-N I said yes and she is an American, and did not ask me if ia said "P-O-N" I am headed somewhere with this the ignorant America will say he meant pan an in p-o-n, we fail to direct it so now the outside world is trying to direct it, she and others asked me how will I discribe this instrument and I told them it was more an inovation more than an invention, it was created by necessity, it is a steel pan not a plastic and other materiels pan, it still is the only new acoustic musical instrument to be invented in the 20th century, they made a similar tool for saxaphone players like the E pan and the Phi, and others, but they have not replaced the sax because it is not brass, it is a tool so sid and others that is not a pan, if somebody would build an electronic attachement to a real pan as they do with the electric acoustic and the electric bass and electric bass which uses real strings fret boards bridges etc and still is a stringed instrument, the current electronic devices are not pans and is a very good gear for pan players, will not further the movement into the fiscal and musical world, nothing wrong with panorama, it needs an overhauling, there are so many areas needs to be addressed in the movement, Kruent it has not moved out of T n t as a matter of fact it hasn't moved at all since the mid 1990's, musically we have lost our presentation we now have granulated pan just like the sugar too refined, no flavour, still sweet, after listening to you tube, it seems that the players are just hitting notes and only when some pieces play fast you get any real execution of songs,currently there is an identity crisis musically, it is just a jam session no expression, all the pannist that horse around with the Epan and the Phi are just trying to play fast meaningless phrases and there is little or no variety, except Duvone stuart, as fra as the ecconomic and promotional aspect, that is the real serious mess, on the outside you got a pan hustle instead of a business enterprise, and in TnT is still "rum and roti"too much arrogance, ignorance, back biting, bob ball, comess etc,since I have started sharing panorama videos most of my non trini friends, pan players etc have gotten the hots for panorama "when and where is the next one?" big question little answer,the small mindedness is just of the big setbacks. our movers and shakers are penny wise and pound foolish,whilst they line their pockets with loose change little entrepernauers are making inroads into non pan teritory the wrong ways,
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