Written by Ted Goslin
In its second year, the PANZfest, Australia and New Zealand’s premiere steelband festival, shook the land down under with stellar performances and was an outlet for education for youth and elders alike. The event took place on Sept. 26 and 27, 2015.
Aimed at creating a biennial event, PANZ, the official steelband association of Australia and New Zealand, was formed in 2013. The group is open to all steelbands and individuals in Australia and New Zealand.
This year’s festival included ten steelband performances. Special guests included U.S. tuner Steve Lawrie, tuner Manish Robertson and sound engineer Yoichi Watanabe. The event took place at West End State School in Brisbane, QLD. The location is set to be different every year to keep the event fresh and fair in terms of accessibility to attendees and players.
“The event was the first held by PANZ. An Australian Steelband Festival (ASF13) was held in April 2013 by Triangle Steelbands, Victoria before PANZ was formed,” said Linda Fullerton, secretary of PANZ and 2015 PANZfest festival director. “PANZfest was the second such festival. There are now more steelbands in Australia and New Zealand so the festival was a little bigger. One improvement was to workshop the mass band performance on the Friday rehearsal day and increase the performance length.”
The event was sponsored by Angostura, a Trinidadian company known for its bitters. “A number of grant applications were made which were unsuccessful. The festival was funded by profits from the bar, stallholders, a raffle and sponsors,” Fullerton said. “Planning was required to ensure adequate mid and bass pans of the correct layout were available to visiting bands and to ensure a well-organised, entertaining event that catered to both the pan players and public.”
The main goals of the PANZ association include acting as a focal point of contact for steelbands and steelpan players, promoting and fostering steelbands and working with educational authorities to promote and develop steelbands in schools. Considering the success of this year’s event, Fullerton can’t wait for the next one, despite the challenges involved.
“Being the festival director of PANZfest 2015 was quite a demanding role, especially since we had a very small planning team. But as a band member I had a fantastic time, as did everyone else. The feedback has been very positive, and all who took part plan to attend the next one,” said Fullerton. “The event is growing. My band has picked up three new members as a result of this festival. There are also several more bands in New Zealand now.”
Being a biennial event, the next PANZfest will take place in 2017 and be held in Marysville, Victoria, Australia.
