SAN­DRA L BLOOD

blood­l­sandy@gmail.com

The steel­band fra­ter­ni­ty is of­ten recog­nised as a male-dom­i­nant space, but at this year’s Na­tion­al Panora­ma Fes­ti­val, with the ex­cep­tion of the pri­ma­ry school cat­e­go­ry, every band that emerged in the fi­nals was cap­tained, man­aged or drilled by women. Spe­cial no­tice was giv­en to the top three in the large con­ven­tion­al cat­e­go­ry.

The Pan Trin­ba­go-pro­duced and pre­sent­ed com­pe­ti­tion ran from No­vem­ber 12, 2025, to Feb­ru­ary 14. It cov­ered Sin­gle Pan, Small, Medi­um and Large Con­ven­tion­al, 19 and Un­der, Elite 21 and Un­der, and Schools. The fes­ti­val cli­maxed on Feb­ru­ary 21 at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore is viewed as an in­spi­ra­tion to many fe­male pan­nists. She re­turned to the move­ment af­ter more than five years as a per­sona non gra­ta and lat­er be­came the first fe­male pres­i­dent of the or­gan­i­sa­tion in 2018. Her vi­sion, tenac­i­ty, re­silience and prac­tices are cred­it­ed with steer­ing the or­gan­i­sa­tion for­ward. She al­so leads Katzen­jam­mers and guid­ed the band from medi­um to large this year, earn­ing a place in the fi­nals.

Among the top three in large con­ven­tion­al were fe­male cap­tains and man­agers. Julie Williams led the reign­ing six-time and re­tain­ing cham­pi­on Re­pub­lic Bank Ex­o­dus with the win­ning tune, Cyah Be­have. The ba­sic verse and cho­rus were writ­ten by Pel­ham God­dard, the tune was arranged by BJ Mar­celle and drilled by Khan Cordice. Can­dice An­drews-Bru­mant rep­re­sent­ed bp Rene­gades, while Ch­enel Pouchet led Nu­trien Sil­ver Stars, which placed third.

Oth­er fe­male lead­ers in­clud­ed Keo­ma Fife, drill mis­tress of Pan El­ders in the medi­um cat­e­go­ry; Sal­isha James of Up­town Fas­ci­na­tors of To­ba­go in small; Ayana Fran­co of San Juan East Side in sin­gle pan; Shani­qua Nurse and Atiya O’Neil-Brit­to of Shell In­vaders in Elite 21 and Un­der; and Dan­ni­ka Ben­jamin of St François Val­ley Stars in the sec­ondary schools cat­e­go­ry.

The women shared a com­mon view that be­ing a cap­tain, man­ag­er or drill mas­ter is de­mand­ing but re­ward­ing.

“It’s a lot of time and com­mit­ment, good com­mu­ni­ca­tion and in­ter­per­son­al skills,” Williams said. “I cap­tain a dis­ci­plined fam­i­ly man­aged by Ainsworth Mo­hammed.”

They agreed that the re­spon­si­bil­i­ties are in­tense and must be bal­anced with “non-pan” com­mit­ments, while push­ing through ob­sta­cles, in­clud­ing health chal­lenges.

Fife, a first-time drill mis­tress for Pan El­ders, said she trav­elled from East Trinidad to South Trinidad de­spite liv­ing with a painful, in­cur­able health con­di­tion. She said she coped with the de­mands of the sea­son.

On the eve of pre­lim­i­nary judg­ing, Pouchet faced a ma­jor set­back. Many of the spe­cial­ly pre­served pans used since the time of her late fa­ther, founder and man­ag­er Edgar “Ju­nior” Pouchet, were ac­ci­den­tal­ly de­stroyed.

“It was a ma­jor dis­as­ter that re­quired my quick think­ing to get new pans de­spite hav­ing lost my voice and bat­tling a virus,” she said.

The ju­nior and school lead­ers were al­so cred­it­ed with bal­anc­ing work and school while man­ag­ing their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.

While en­sur­ing the fes­ti­val pro­ceed­ed smooth­ly, Ram­sey-Moore faced the death of her moth­er, Au­drey Ram­sey, who passed away two days af­ter the large band fi­nals. The pan fra­ter­ni­ty ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to her and wished her and her fam­i­ly strength.

The day af­ter Car­ni­val Lagniappe, the lead­ers re­turned to their usu­al dai­ly op­er­a­tions.

The Unit­ed Na­tions in the Caribbean said of women in pan: “Through steel­pan… women have chal­lenged norms, tak­ing lead­er­ship in spaces once dom­i­nat­ed by men and ex­pand­ing what’s pos­si­ble.” It added that women are the “en­gine room” of pan.