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Just landed beautiful Jamaica, and my first fete for Bacchanal Jamaica Carnival 2010 was Pan in the Garden. Now as a lover of pan, I was quite excited to see how Jamaican’s do pan here.

This was an outdoor event held in the beautiful garden of Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, located right in the heart of New Kingston. I arrived at the venue at about 9pm and noticed that the event had a nice mix of people of all ages & races, brought together by their love for Carnival & Steelpan.  The party was in full swing, people wining to the pan blasting from the speakers. I walked towards the stage to see where this sweet pan was coming from.  It was the UWI Panoridim Steel Orchestra playing, a group of 40 talented UWI students with Bianca Welds as their captain.  And if you see dem play... boy dey had skills for days. I mean their energy was simply intoxicating.

The DJ then took over for a bit, keeping the crowds energy up playing all the soca bests until the next group hit  the stage.  Then came Caribbean Airlines Invaders Steel Orchestra, all the way from Trinidad!  Lead by captain Jason Ho, they kept the crowd happy playing back in time tunes as well as all the latest hits. And I must say any genre of music sounds great in pan! The promoters had two stages facing each other.  UWI was on one stage & Invaders on the other. The two pan orchestras took turns entertaining the crowd all night long.  And when they played Pan over the 2010 Road March, "Palance", the crowd went mad.  They had everyone jumping, wining, & palancing all over the place. And you know TJJ enjoys a good palance, so YES, I was all smiles!! :-)

This was a catered event, and although I did not get a chance to sample the food, I heard it was delicious. The bar also seemed to run smoothly, people weren’t waiting too long to get their drinks.

With beautiful weather, great outdoor venue, nice crowd AND sweet pan, I mean what more can you ask for?  Special thanks to Chris and the rest of the promotions team for inviting us to experience steelpan in Jamaica! We had a fabulous time and look forward to it next year!!

- L Boogie
 
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>> View Pan Fete 2010 "Clash of Steel" Review
>> View Bacchanal Jamaica Carnival 2010 Coverage