On May 8th and 9th, Virginia Beach, Va. was host to the annual Virginia Beach International PAN Fest, coordinated by Dave Longfellow. This year’s event featured a variety of vendors, bands (both from the U.S. and abroad, and two headlining acts, the Jonathan Scales Fourchestra and the Renegades. The latter featured band leader and steelpan virtuoso Duvone Stewart.
The event has gained notoriety in recent years with enhanced sponsors and hundreds of attendees packed onto the lawn as part of the Virginia Arts Festival.
As part of the event, a competition is held with different categories of bands competing against one another, with a $1,000 grand champion award being given to the highest scoring band at the festival. This year’s grand champion was the Leon High School Canboulay Band from Tallahassee, Fla.
Judges for the contest were Amrit Samaroo, Tom Miller and Kendall Williams.
Pan virtuoso Duvone Stewart performs a solo with his band, the Renegades, from Trinidad and Tobago.
Metro Steel from Brooklyn, New York, performs an arrangement of Billy Jean by Michael Jackson.
