Panorama medium finals shift to Savannah after ferry damage

The Panora­ma medi­um band fi­nals will be held at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah this year af­ter dam­age to the MV Blue Wave Har­mo­ny forced or­gan­is­ers to aban­don plans to stage the event in To­ba­go.

Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore an­nounced the change while speak­ing at the draw for po­si­tions for the Panora­ma Se­mi Fi­nal com­pe­ti­tion. The medi­um band fi­nals, which have been host­ed in To­ba­go for the past few years, will now take place in Port of Spain on Mon­day, Feb­ru­ary 9, and will be a free event.

Ram­sey-Moore said Pan Trin­ba­go had been ful­ly pre­pared to take the com­pe­ti­tion to To­ba­go once again.

“For the past few years we have been do­ing the medi­um band fi­nals in To­ba­go. We were up and ready, set to go to To­ba­go on Sun­day,” she said.

How­ev­er, she ex­plained that cir­cum­stances changed fol­low­ing an in­ci­dent in­volv­ing the Blue Wave Har­mo­ny dur­ing its sec­ond sea tri­al on Jan­u­ary 30. The ves­sel sus­tained dam­age to its hull while berthing at the Port of Scar­bor­ough and is cur­rent­ly out of ser­vice.

“But the sit­u­a­tion has de­vel­oped, and de­spite chal­lenges may come in our way, as pan peo­ple we are re­silient, and we have found a way to treat this on­ly for this year,” Ram­sey-Moore said.

She stressed that To­ba­go’s ab­sence from host­ing the event is tem­po­rary.

“To­day, To­ba­go, we want to let you know that it is on­ly for 2026, and we will be back in To­ba­go in 2027,” she said.

Ram­sey-Moore al­so ac­knowl­edged the role played by Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Jear­lean John in en­sur­ing arrange­ments were ini­tial­ly put in place to sup­port the move­ment of Steel­bands.

“I want to com­mend the min­is­ter, Jear­lean John, for en­sur­ing that that ves­sel went to To­ba­go to bring the pans down,” she said.

She added that the dam­age to the ves­sel had left or­gan­is­ers with lim­it­ed op­tions giv­en the short time­frame.

“But be­cause of the ac­ci­dent, I should say, that ves­sel is sort of out of ser­vice at this time. And so we are pre­pared to work and to give that kind of sup­port to the gov­ern­ment and to find the nec­es­sary so­lu­tions,” she said.

The so­lu­tion, she ex­plained, was to keep the medi­um band fi­nals in Trinidad for this year.

“And the so­lu­tion that we have found is to work the medi­um band right here at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah on Mon­day night,” Ram­sey-Moore said.

She said Pan Trin­ba­go’s ex­ec­u­tive agreed to des­ig­nate the event as Lega­cy Mon­day, with a fo­cus on ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty and trib­ute to the Steel­band move­ment.

“As the ex­ec­u­tive, as we chat­ted yes­ter­day, we spoke yes­ter­day, and we have agreed to make Mon­day night Lega­cy Mon­day. It is for you, right here at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, and it is go­ing to be a free event,” she said.

Ram­sey-Moore in­vit­ed the pub­lic to at­tend, with a par­tic­u­lar ap­peal to young peo­ple and steel­pan sup­port­ers.

“We ask all our young peo­ple, as we pass on the lega­cy, and all our steel­pan en­thu­si­asts, all our sup­port­ers in Trinidad and To­ba­go, to join us at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah,” she said.

She said the night would ho­n­our gen­er­a­tions of con­trib­u­tors to the art­form.

“As we pay trib­ute to our an­ces­tors, as we pay trib­ute to our arrangers, as we pay trib­ute to our play­ers, as we pay trib­ute to our steel band lead­ers, as we pay trib­ute to the en­tire ecosys­tem of the steel band world,” she said.

Ram­sey-Moore apol­o­gised to stake­hold­ers in To­ba­go.

“Even though we are dis­ap­point­ed that we are not go­ing to To­ba­go. And for all our ser­vice providers in To­ba­go, please just know, bear with us. We are sor­ry, we are so sor­ry, but the show must go on,” she said.

She al­so con­grat­u­lat­ed the medi­um bands for their per­for­mances so far.

“Our medi­um bands have to take this op­por­tu­ni­ty to con­grat­u­late all of you. We had a great show on Sun­day, from the be­gin­ning to the end,” she said. “I am so proud of all our bands. I am so proud of our play­ers. I am so proud of our tuners, our builders… all of them.”

In or­der of ap­pear­ance

1. Courts Sound Spe­cial­ists of Laven­tille

2. Curepe Scherzan­do Steel Or­ches­tra

3. Ari­ma An­gel Harps Steel Or­ches­tra

4. Dix­ieland Steel Or­ches­tra

5. San­gre Grande Cordettes Steel Or­ches­tra

6. Pan El­ders Steel Or­ches­tra

7. Sforza­ta Steel Or­ches­tra

8. Cou­va Joy­lan­ders Steel Or­ches­tra

9. Pam­beri Steel Or­ches­tra

10. Steel Xplo­sion Steel Or­ches­tra