CEDAR CITY – A huge crowd of children and adults were wowed by the steel drums of the Caribbean Sound band at the Orchestra of Southern Utah’s annual, award-winning Children’s Jubilee as part of this year’s theme “Ahoy Pirates.”

Caribbean Sound, a steel drum band from Florida, was accompanied in many of its numbers by OSU, which also performed an overture from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. The band played a selection of songs from the Caribbean Islands including reggae, calypso and carnival.

Before the concert, children enjoyed lobby displays, which included the Southern Utah Animal Ambassadors, an outreach program started this year by Biology Professor Bill Heyborne.

Children were allowed to observe and pet different exotic animals including a 10-year-old African Tortoise, a boa constrictor, lizards, a tarantula and the very popular leopard gecko indigenous to Asia.

After the concert, there were a huge variety of hands-on artistic and science-based activities made possible by volunteers from across the community including many SUU students and professors from both the Colleges of Science and Education, the Garth and Jerri Frehner Museum of Natural History at SUU, and Girl Scout Troop 2170.

Children saw how stars help in navigation through an indoor planetarium, saw the microscopic sea shells in a piece of sandstone through an electronic microscope attached to a computer screen, studied wave and wind patterns on water, shot at pirate ships with mini air guns, used a mini catapult to fire sponge canon balls, and made pirate hooks and treasure maps in addition to many other activities.

One very popular science station was the air canons brought by the SUU Physics Department. The stocky round cylinders with a stiff rubber backing that would be pulled back and released to shoot a blast of air from 7 or more feet away, knocking over soda cans and moving balloons were a big hit with all ages.

This year’s event, built around the Caribbean Sound steel drum band, was very exciting for OSU past president Sarah Penny, who has been a member of OSU and an organizer of the Children’s Jubilee since its founding, because she said she has been trying to get Caribbean Sound to Cedar City for three years.

The opportunity to bring exciting and quality music to the community’s children as well as the mind-stimulating activities is something the orchestra looks forward to each year, she said.