Pan Trin­ba­go is mark­ing the sec­ond an­niver­sary of the steel­pan’s des­ig­na­tion as Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Na­tion­al Mu­si­cal In­stru­ment, de­scrib­ing the mile­stone as a cel­e­bra­tion of the coun­try’s cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty and the glob­al lega­cy of the on­ly acoustic mu­si­cal in­stru­ment in­vent­ed in the 20th cen­tu­ry.

In a me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day, the or­gan­i­sa­tion re­flect­ed on the Ju­ly 19, 2024 procla­ma­tion that for­mal­ly recog­nised the steel­pan as the na­tion’s Na­tion­al Mu­si­cal In­stru­ment, say­ing the leg­is­la­tion per­ma­nent­ly en­shrined one of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s most trea­sured cul­tur­al sym­bols.

Pan Trin­ba­go said the des­ig­na­tion ho­n­ours the in­ge­nu­ity and re­silience of gen­er­a­tions of pi­o­neers who trans­formed dis­card­ed oil drums in­to an in­stru­ment now cel­e­brat­ed world­wide.