Pandemonium at Botanical Gardens

On Sunday July 24 sweet steel pan music moved from the sands of Brandon’s Beach to the lawns of the National Botanical Gardens without missing a single beat. With this year’s Crop Over Festival entering its final week more Barbadians are attending events that were taken from them for two years due to the Covid -19 pandemic. The renaming and relocating of this island’s mega steel pan concert was a major success. Shedding the name Pan Pun De Sand and adapting a new one Pandemonium made little different to the glorious music rendered by a large cast of panists- most of them secondary school students.

From as early as 3 o’clock and under a warm afternoon sun thousands of Barbadians and visitors gathered under trees with their picnic baskets, fold-up chairs, and blankets. This Crop- Over events can truly be billed as a family event. As you look across the vast area of the National Botanical Gardens it was easy to see clusters of family groups. From granny and granddaddy to young toddlers came to take in the activities.

It was a day for pan and pan we got. The sound of pan music permeated the air and with that a spell was casted. As the music resonated people responded with -‘ movementations’ -dance

Pandemonium was properly planned by the National Culture Foundation (NCF) and credit must be given to them. The idea to have the smaller pan orchestras, groups such as Let we go, The Barbados Community College, Pan Ensemble, Phoenix Steel Orchestra and the National steel Orchestraplaying on trailer trucks and moving through the crowd bought about intimacy of pan and people. On the main stage Barbados and the world were treated to an outstanding performance by the National Youth Orchestra. This orchestra consist of secondary students from a variety of schools. Apart from the manifestation of their musical talents these young Barbadians gave   solid evidence that more constructive and productive young people than we are led to believe.

The blend of singing to pan music is fresh and give a new dimension to well-known songs and singers. The huge crowd was treated to performances from Red Plastic Bag, Lil Rick, Allison Hinds, Nikita, Leadpipe, Sadis, Biggie Irie , Peter Ram the Mighty Gabby and many others.

There was no mayhem, no havoc or no chaos as most people would expect at a pandemonium. The Pandemonium in the National Botanical Gardens was a musical uproar which energized the thousands who attended.