Editorial
Newsday
AS of September 11, NGC ended its relationship with the three steelbands it sponsored – La Brea Nightingales, Couva Joylanders and Tobago’s Steel Explosion, each of which was deemed by the company to be in its fenceline communities.
The contracts were set to expire in December 2025.
For a local energy company, a fenceline community is one that sits close to the company’s operational infrastructure, which, when it comes to NGC’s widespread buried natural gas pipeline infrastructure, is a network of adjacencies across the country.
Sponsorship of that kind is meant to build positive reporting relationships between the company and people living in those communities, who are often the first alarums of trouble on their distribution networks.
The company’s Community Awareness and Emergency Response and Community Emergency Response Training programmes are more direct efforts to engage communities in safely responding to possible incidents.
Outside that kind of fenceline community support, NGC has commitments to the San Fernando Junior Arts Festival, the Bocas Lit Fest and the bands, Sweet Tassa Enterprises and Bao Simba Entertainers of Tobago.
NGC has not made announcements about its commitment to these sponsorships.
For Nightingales, Joylanders and Steel Explosion, the sudden and abrupt withdrawal, given on a contractual hardline of seven days’ notice, demands a dramatic thinking of the bands’ immediate future.
Joylanders had a 13-year relationship with the state energy company and the support over the years enabled the panside to solidify its position as a medium band and to begin plans to transition to large band status, while establishing a junior band.
According to Joylanders’ manager Richard Gill, NGC’s support enabled growth in youth education and music programmes, building capacity among the Couva players.
The abrupt end to this support relationship was shocking to the three affected steelbands, but the decision to end funding to Pan Trinbago was received by its president as a “devastating blow.”
Pan Trinbago president Beverly Ramsey-Moore openly expressed concern about steelbands also funded by the state agencies NLCB and Heritage Petroleum, demanding that “government must say whether it wants nothing to do with pan.”
In response, Minister of Culture Michelle Benjamin declared herself committed to “seeking a way forward” for Pan Trinbago and the affected steelbands.
The Panorama competition caters to 100 steelbands, as many as 75 of them sponsored, but the number of bands with panyards is larger than that.
The Panonthenet website has a dynamic listing of 151 bands with verified addresses. Since the list was established, 20 small steelbands have been removed, suggesting challenges with maintaining viability at that size.
The government clearly needs a clearer and more focused strategy for steelband support, being mindful that the panyard learning experience is one of the nation’s few effective and homegrown responses to the lure of gangs.