00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Marcy Trinidad All-Stars and VP Renegades
00:11 are returning to Iron Park in 2024,
00:14 but will be facing new competition from Nutrient
00:17 Silver Stars at the event, where three large steel bands compete
00:21 not before a panel of judges, but before patrons
00:24 who determine the winner via a popular vote of cheers
00:28 and applause.
00:30 On Sunday, TV6 News spoke with the captain of Silver Stars,
00:33 Chanel Pouchette, at the band's panyard on Track Great Road,
00:37 where optimism was expressed about an event that
00:40 appeals to a younger audience vital to the future of the steel
00:44 band movement.
00:45 Silver Stars intends to bring a lot of high energy.
00:48 We have a lot of young players, so we definitely
00:50 want to bring a great performance.
00:52 We need to restructure the way that we reach in the audience.
00:55 The target audience has to be the younger people,
00:57 because the older population grew up on pan,
01:00 grew up with pan as part of carnival.
01:03 And when the older people were young,
01:07 their friends played in steel bands,
01:09 and they went to trip with the band,
01:11 and those were their friends.
01:12 Now you have young people playing in steel bands,
01:14 but everybody jumping up on a mass band with a DJ.
01:17 So the DJ kind of took over as time went by.
01:20 So it's nice that we could have something like Iron Park, where
01:22 we could kind of bridge that gap.
01:24 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:27 [CHEERING]
01:30 At Iron Park, which is held by Wow Events,
01:33 DJs provide music in between their introductions
01:37 to each steel band's performance.
01:39 Wow Events logistics manager and event coordinator
01:42 for Iron Park, Ruby Paris, also spoke with TV6 News
01:46 at the Silver Stars' pan yard.
01:48 This is our third year, and it feels as if the attention,
01:52 the demand for participation, for attendance
01:56 has significantly increased from the last two years.
01:59 Ms. Paris said steel bands are a huge part
02:01 of Trinidad and Tobago's national and cultural
02:04 identity.
02:06 I feel as if Iron Park is an experience where
02:10 you can connect with people, and perhaps in a different light,
02:12 and see the duality and the flexibility of pan,
02:17 and that it's not just soca you're going to be hearing.
02:20 I mean, they might throw in reggae,
02:22 they might throw in dancehall, they might throw in pop.
02:24 Pan is an instrument that is so versatile,
02:26 and we really want to celebrate that at the Iron Park.
02:30 The three steel bands at Iron Park 2024
02:33 are also among the steel bands that
02:35 will be competing in the large band category in Panther
02:38 and Bego's Panorama competition.
02:41 Back in the day, you used to see that pan was a bigger
02:43 part of carnival.
02:44 And now it seems like for a steel band,
02:46 you just participate in Panorama.
02:48 You're not seeing bands playing and fed so much.
02:50 So Iron Park really brought something different to the game,
02:53 where you could see families and young people who
02:56 enjoy the festival experience, but could also
02:58 experience pan outside of the pan yard for the carnival season,
03:02 playing different songs.
03:03 So they get a chance to get introduced to the band,
03:07 see what kind of--
03:08 you know, what the repertoire, things that we could play.
03:10 So they get to maybe know the bands a little bit better.
03:15 Iron Park takes place on Friday, January 19th,
03:18 at Queen's Park, Savannah West, from 8 PM to 2 AM.
03:22 It's part of WOW Events Soca Arts and Music Festival
03:25 weekend, which also includes the WOW Carnival
03:28 Market on Saturday, January 20th,
03:31 and the Soca 'Til Sunrise Pet on January 21st.
03:35 Julie Brown, TV6 News.
03:39 (upbeat music)
03:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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