Panama’s Assembly Honors ‘The Beachers’ for Six Decades of Calypso Legacy: A Group Rooted in Bocas del Toro

Pictured above is Starfish Beach. The National Assembly recognized The Beachers for 60 years of calypso music and honored director Lloyd Gallimore during a chamber tribute. The gesture highlighted Bocas del Toro’s Caribbean cultural legacy and the group’s role in Panamanian music.  The National Assembly shifted from heated debate to a celebration of Caribbean culture on Wednesday, April 22, as lawmakers paid tribute to The Beachers, one of Panama’s most emblematic calypso groups.  The band occupied the main seats in the legislative chamber while the Assembly approved Resolution 250 of April 20, 2026, recognizing the group’s 60-year career and honoring Lloyd Gallimore, a central figure in promoting Caribbean music in Panama. 

Assembly president Jorge Herrera and other lawmakers presented each member with a folder containing the official recognition document at the top of the chamber.  Founded in 1966 in the province of Bocas del Toro, The Beachers has played a major role in spreading music with Afro-Caribbean roots across Panama. Over the years, the group has become a lasting symbol of calypso and Caribbean identity in the country’s cultural landscape.  The resolution describes the band as one of the longest-standing, most cohesive, and most representative groups in Panamanian music. That recognition reflects not only the group’s longevity, but also its role in preserving and projecting a musical tradition deeply tied to Panama’s Caribbean provinces. 

Honoring The Beachers in the country’s legislature highlights the place of Caribbean music in Panama’s national story. Bocas del Toro has long been associated with Afro-Antillean heritage, and calypso remains one of the most recognizable expressions of that cultural influence.  The tribute also places Lloyd Gallimore in the spotlight as a key figure in that musical history. As director of The Beachers, he has been closely linked to the group’s work and to the broader diffusion of Caribbean sounds in Panama.  By recognizing the band during a public legislative session, the Assembly gave national visibility to a genre and a region that have helped shape Panama’s cultural diversity. The moment turned the chamber into a stage for a celebration of music, memory, and identity.