Uptown Fascinators and Southern Stars share Small Band Panorama crown

KEVON FELMINE

[email protected]

Se­nior Re­porter

De­spite fin­ish­ing sec­ond in both the pre­lim­i­nary and se­mi-fi­nal rounds of the 2026 Na­tion­al Panora­ma Small Con­ven­tion­al Bands com­pe­ti­tion, To­ba­go’s Up­town Fas­ci­na­tors rose to the mo­ment on Sat­ur­day night, daz­zling a mod­est but com­mit­ted crowd at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do, to cap­ture the na­tion­al ti­tle along­side Siparia’s South­ern Stars Steel Or­ches­tra.

The up­set vic­to­ry crowned a dra­mat­ic fi­nal that un­fold­ed un­der in­ter­mit­tent driz­zle, as steel­pan lovers braved the weath­er, um­brel­las in hand, de­ter­mined to savour a night of sweet steel.

Dressed in neon green and black, Up­town Fas­ci­na­tors de­liv­ered more than a per­for­mance. They em­bod­ied their tune of choice, Crazy’s 2007 pan com­po­si­tion Band from Space, trans­form­ing the stage in­to a sci-fi spec­ta­cle. The band adorned its pre­sen­ta­tion with space­ship-in­spired el­e­ments, vi­su­al­ly re­in­forc­ing the oth­er­world­ly theme of the mu­sic.

Speak­ing af­ter the re­sults, arranger Ojay Richards said the mar­gins be­tween first and sec­ond place in the ear­li­er rounds were ra­zor-thin, three points in the pre­lim­i­nar­ies and two in the se­mi-fi­nals, prompt­ing the band to in­ten­si­fy its prepa­ra­tions head­ing in­to the fi­nal.

Richards said weeks of hard work, late nights and ear­ly morn­ings paid off, cred­it­ing the play­ers’ ded­i­ca­tion and the cre­ative con­cept that fused sound and sto­ry­telling. The per­for­mance, he ex­plained, fol­lowed a nar­ra­tive of aliens de­scend­ing to in­vade Panora­ma, on­ly for the band to re­tal­i­ate by tak­ing the bat­tle back in­to space in a cli­mac­tic steel band show­down.

“You have to go in want­i­ng that win and have that kind of con­fi­dence to want to win. Af­ter that, you leave it all up to the judges be­cause even when the re­sults were called, my heart was beat­ing out of my chest. I was ner­vous be­cause you nev­er know what can hap­pen or what the judges can think, but we want­ed to push that con­fi­dence go­ing in­to it,” Richards said.

Richards al­so arranged for Pan El­ders Steel Or­ches­tra in the Medi­um Band cat­e­go­ry and Sil­ver Stars Steel Or­ches­tra in the Large Band com­pe­ti­tion. Sat­ur­day’s vic­to­ry marked his third Small Band Panora­ma win, fol­low­ing tri­umphs in 2020 and 2023, and his eighth year ar­rang­ing for Up­town Fas­ci­na­tors. He pre­vi­ous­ly arranged for Dix­ieland be­fore tran­si­tion­ing to Pan El­ders, where he se­cured sec­ond place in con­sec­u­tive years.

Cel­e­bra­tions, Richards said, were set to con­tin­ue back at the Radis­son Ho­tel.

Mean­while, South­ern Stars Steel Or­ches­tra opt­ed for a nos­tal­gic ap­proach, de­liv­er­ing a sweet and melod­ic ren­di­tion of Den­nis Franklyn “Mer­chant” Williams’ 1982 clas­sic Let Us Build A Na­tion To­geth­er, arranged by Du­vone Stew­art.

Vice-cap­tain and tenor pan play­er Rickel­la Mar­shall said the band was elat­ed af­ter se­cur­ing its first Panora­ma ti­tle.

“Feels great. We have been work­ing re­al­ly hard for the past two months, late nights, so we are re­al­ly hap­py about this win,” Mar­shall said.

She de­scribed the fi­nal weeks lead­ing up to Sat­ur­day night as gru­elling, with band mem­bers jug­gling work and school com­mit­ments while en­sur­ing the pan yard and stage prepa­ra­tions were flaw­less.

“With the stage side, it was a lot of hard work, com­ing out the whole day. Those who had school or work put it aside a lit­tle to spend the whole day in the yard, clean­ing, mak­ing sure the play­ers had re­fresh­ments, in­stru­ments to play, and a safe and com­fort­able space.”

Al­though fes­tiv­i­ties wrapped up around 2.30 am, Mar­shall said cel­e­bra­tions were far from over, with the band head­ing back to the pan yard to mark the mile­stone vic­to­ry. Look­ing ahead to Panora­ma 2027, she said South­ern Stars would re­turn de­ter­mined to de­fend their ti­tle.

San Fer­nan­do Gold­en Hands Steel Or­ches­tra placed third with At­lantik’s 1997 hit All Board, arranged by band­leader Vanes­sa Headley-Brew­ster. Tu­na­puna Tipi­ca Steel Or­ches­tra se­cured fourth place with Iw­er George’s 1991 so­ca hit The Par­ty Hot Hot Hot, arranged by An­dre White. To­ba­go’s T&TEC New East Side Di­men­sion, who shared the 2025 ti­tle with Gold­en Hands, fin­ished fifth af­ter their per­for­mance of Mighty Spar­row’s 1970s clas­sic Wa­ter De Gar­den, arranged by Kersh Ram­sey.

Re­sults:

1. Up­town Fas­ci­na­tors - Band from Space (283)

1. South­ern Stars Steel Or­ches­tra - Let us Build a Na­tion To­geth­er (283)

3. Gold­en Hands Steel Or­ches­tra All Board (278)

4. Tu­na­puna Tipi­ca Steel Or­ches­tra - The Par­ty Hot Hot Hot (276)

5. T&TEC New East Side Di­men­sion - Wa­ter De Gar­den (275)

5. T&T De­fence Force Steel Or­ches­tra - All is Yours (275)

7. Fu­sion Steel or­ches­tra - Sig­nal for Lara (273)

8. Fas­ci­na­tors Pan Sym­pho­ny - Both of Them (272)

8. Road Block Steel Or­ches­tra - Gui­tar Pan (272)

10. Pana­son­ic Con­nec­tion Steel Or­ches­tra - Drunk and Dis­or­der­ly (267)

10. Al­pha Pan Pi­o­neers - Take me Home (267)