[h2]
The 2015 Mannette Festival of Steel reached a recent milestone in attendance after nearly being discontinued due the loss of one of its most important figures.
[/h2]
Written by Ted Goslin
Since taking over the Mannette Festival of Steel in 2013, festival organizer Dave Longfellow has had to rebuild the legendary steelpan workshop from the ground up. This year, the event succeeded beyond expectations, almost doubling attendance for the third time in a row with 88 total attendees compared to last year’s number of 56.
Named after Ellie Mannette, founder of Mannette Musical Instruments and the inventor of the modern steelpan, the Mannette Festival of Steel has been a staple in the U.S. since 1992 when Mannette first moved to Morgantown, W.V., home to the event. Helped by long-time friend and business partner Kaethe George and several students, the week-long event was meant as a workshop for any level of player to attend and gain instruction from some of the top clinicians in the world of steelpan.
My first was in ‘96. Ellie brought in Professor Philmore, Ray Holman, and Jeff Narell. 2007 was the last one,” recalled Longfellow. “The real catalyst was when Kaethe got sick with [Stage IV] breast cancer. She was unable to run the show at that point, so she called me up to come out from Norfolk, Virginia in 2012 to help. Chanler, Eric Fountain, and I put together our first event at the Stonewall Jackson resort, which was really small with only about 22 attendees.”
Loss of a Friend
In June of 2013, George lost her battle with cancer and passed away, leaving Mannette alone for the first time in 30 years. George’s loss was felt by both Mannette, her family and hundreds of pan friends around the world who she had connected with over the years.
To help boost his spirits, long-time students and event assistants Longfellow and Bailey realized the importance of continuing the event and have been rebuilding it ever since.
It hit Ellie really hard. I’ve never seen him in such bad spirits,” said Longfellow. “So, to help lift his spirits and continue the event that we all love I thought, ‘why not have a steel drum festival at the same time as the workshop?'”
This year’s festival lasted from July 12 through July 18 and featured three bands (beginning, intermediate and advanced), taught by world-class clinicians Ray Holman, Andy Narell and Jeff Narell. It also featured 10 panel discussions/lectures by pan educators Emily Lemmerman, Brand Haskett, Longfellow, and Mannette himself. The band rehearsals were in preparation for a final concert that took place on July 18 in an outdoor hangar-like space used for the local farmer’s market.
The concert drew hundreds of attendees and proved to be a huge success in showcasing the talents of players, organizers, and clinicians alike.
Trade Secrets
The event also included a pan building workshop, led by Keith Moone of Mannette Instruments. Attendees were taken through the basics of building an old-time single double-second steelpan, from sinking to note shaping, and at the end were allowed to keep the drum they made. Tuning was conducted by Moone at the end of the workshop.
“There’s just too much to learn in just one week, but the basics can all be covered by focusing on a single pan,” Longfellow explained. “The goal is to work closely with Keith and MMI [Mannette Musical Instruments] to help spur an interest in building and tuning, especially for younger students.”
The festival previously included tuning in its building workshop but expectations were found to be off-base for many students, according to Longfellow.
“I agree with Keith [Moone] that ‘teaching basic tuning skills’ can be very harmful in the wrong hands. It’s a slippery slope where we want to be as forthcoming as possible with instruction, yet convey the seriousness of the craft and hopefully instill that sense of commitment,” he said. “I remember the building workshops from the 90’s became contentious at times because novice or intermediate builder/tuners would show up and expect Ellie to just hand over some of his ‘trade secrets.’ We don’t want to dupe anyone into our program, so our language and explanations will be clearer as we move forward. But, if I could draw a comparison: If Coca-Cola offered a workshop on the basics of soda-making, I would hope that a trusted company with a quality product would provide an excellent course on soda-making 101, but I would have to be incredibly naïve to think that they would give away their secret formula at some point throughout the week. You could probably draw the same distinction between learning how to ‘home brew’ from a micro-brewery.”
Hopes and Dreams
With the legacy of Mannette at stake, Longfellow only hopes to grow the event further, considering how quickly the pan community has re-embraced it.
“We created a whole new audience. There’s a big range of older and younger attendees. When Chanler and Kaethe were running the workshop in the early 2000’s, I was still in college with most of my WVU steelband friends. Chanler brought us on as staff to help with logistics,” Longfellow said. “Now, a generation later, I have almost all the same friends from WVU on staff with some new additions, including Corey McCormick, a long-time friend and colleague, as my assistant.”
For future events I’d like to see about bringing in different clinicians and lecturers from the global pan community. The more it grows the more talent I can pull.”
While being able to interact with legendary pan figures like Mannette up close may be a dream come true for some festival attendees, one clinician was just as impressed with how quickly some players were able to adapt to the challenging material presented to them with only a week to learn it all.
“It was an enormously successful event. I never imagined beginners could play like that or that the intermediate and advanced to could learn so much music,” said Holman. “The reason they could do that was the attitude of the people. This event was very special. It was all because they had a positive attitude. What this event is doing is spreading the word of pan and developing more interest throughout the world with players, performers, and families.”
Having been a part of the festival since the beginning, Jeff Narell can also attest to the importance of the event in the steelpan community.
“It’s grown in a lot of ways. Participation, breadth of the workshop, and quality,” Narell said. “I like everyday being with the students, watching them progress, but really its the whole process that is very gratifying. Sometimes by the end you’re holding back the tears because you see how much its been for everybody and what you’ve been part of.”
