Dozens of peo­ple flocked to Mille Fleurs re­cent­ly for the Na­tion­al Trust of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s an­nu­al Ponche de Creme, Parang and Pan—a beloved cel­e­bra­tion of her­itage, cul­ture and Christ­mas spir­it at the his­toric house over­look­ing the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain.

Pa­trons were greet­ed at the en­trance with a glass of rich, creamy ponche de crème to set the tone for an evening steeped in fes­tive warmth.

The en­ter­tain­ment fea­tured three parang bands along with the pul­sat­ing rhythms of the Des­per­a­dos Steel Or­ches­tra.

Open­ing the night was Los Par­ran­deros de UWI, which de­liv­ered crowd favourites such as Sa­ban­do and La Gal­li­na, per­formed by Joanne Brig­gs and Robert Per­sad re­spec­tive­ly. Cel­e­brat­ing its 45th an­niver­sary this year, the group show­cased the vi­brant rhythms and live­ly vo­cal arrange­ments that have made them a sta­ple of the parang sea­son. Their lat­est tune—led once again by Brig­gs—had the au­di­ence sway­ing and singing along as the Christ­mas mood filled the air.

They were fol­lowed by Los Sonidos—which trans­lates to “The Sounds”—whose melo­di­ous vo­cal­ists, Jeye­sha Jones and Keni­ka Quash, cap­ti­vat­ed the au­di­ence with a soul­ful per­for­mance of teir 2022 orig­i­nal Par­ran­da es La Vi­da. Jones al­so de­liv­ered a mov­ing ren­di­tion of Mi Ma­ma No Quiere, while band cap­tain Jones kept the parang tra­di­tion alive with in­fec­tious en­er­gy and ca­ma­raderie. The group round­ed out their set with a Ken­ny J parang med­ley, in­clud­ing Leroy and Home­made Wine, per­formed by Kye­sha Jones and Dar­rion Rouse.

Clos­ing the parang seg­ment was Vo­ces Jovenes, led by Rus­sell Cor­bie. Once a car­ol­ing group, they have evolved in­to one of Trinidad’s pre­mier parang en­sem­bles, based in Diego Mar­tin. Their per­for­mances are known for youth­ful en­er­gy and a strong com­mit­ment to pass­ing the tra­di­tion to the next gen­er­a­tion. Among their youngest mem­bers is teenage marac play­er Jamie Lee Smith, who has be­come a per­ma­nent part of the band.

Singers Lisette Khan and Noel­la-Maria Ray­side lift­ed the at­mos­phere with spir­it­ed ren­di­tions of Sereno Sereno, El Canon­a­zo and El Que To­ca la Gui­tar­ra, backed by the group’s sig­na­ture har­monies and live­ly in­stru­men­ta­tion.

When it was time for pan, Des­per­a­dos trans­formed the space in­to a true Christ­mas lime, draw­ing pa­trons close as the band de­liv­ered their un­mis­tak­able steel­band mag­ic. Laugh­ter, chat­ter and mu­sic blend­ed in­to a fes­tive rhythm as peo­ple gath­ered with cool­ers in hand, en­joy­ing their bev­er­ages of choice.

Adding to the ex­pe­ri­ence were Paramin res­i­dents, who pro­vid­ed a spread of tra­di­tion­al Christ­mas fare—in­clud­ing wild meat dish­es and sea­son­al favourites—giv­ing the night an au­then­tic, home­style touch.

The an­nu­al cel­e­bra­tion once again proved its rep­u­ta­tion as a cher­ished start to the hol­i­day sea­son, blend­ing the best of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s mu­sic, flavours and com­mu­ni­ty spir­it.