Twen­ty small bands made it to the semi­fi­nals of the Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion, to be held from noon on Sat­ur­day at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain. A to­tal of 52 bands com­pet­ed in this cat­e­go­ry over a four-day pe­ri­od, and semi­fi­nal­ists, by re­gion, are: North (sev­en), East (six), South/ Cen­tral (five) and To­ba­go (two). Top­ping the plac­ings in the Small Bands cat­e­go­ry is Laven­tille Ser­e­naders, with 271 points.

The band played an Ard­din Her­bert arrange­ment of Ham­mer Time, a song com­posed by Ken­neth Charles, with lyrics by Alvin Daniell and sung by Nicole Greaves. Ser­e­naders is fol­lowed by Su­per No­vas and Tamana Pi­o­neers, in sec­ond and third places, with 270 and 268 points re­spec­tive­ly. Both bands played Ce­cil Hume's (Mae­stro) Gold.

The semi­fi­nal­ists in this cat­e­go­ry will per­form to­geth­er with the 33 semi­fi­nal­ists in the Sin­gle Pan bands. NGC Cou­va Joy­lan­ders placed first when the Medi­um Bands pre­lim­i­nary was held on Sun­day night, al­so at the Sa­van­nah. The South/Cen­tral steel or­ches­tra earned 260 points for its ren­di­tion of Band from Space, arranged by Ken­neth "Panam" Clarke.

De­fend­ing cham­pi­on Petrotrin Katzen­jam­mers of To­ba­go amassed 252 points for its per­for­mance of Keshorn–Javelin Cham­pi­on. The 14 semi­fi­nal­ists in this cat­e­go­ry will share the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah stage with the 17 large con­ven­tion­al bands next Sun­day.

Tick­ets for Sun­day's semi­fi­nals, dubbed "Sa­van­nah Par­ty," went on sale yes­ter­day, Mon­day, at the tick­et booth at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, and at Ather­ly's, Sut­ton Street, San Fer­nan­do. They are priced at $350 (North Stand and North Greens) and $300 (Grand Stand).

Panora­ma (small bands) semi­fi­nal­ists:

1. Laven­tille Ser­e­naders

2. Su­per No­vas

3. Tamana Pi­o­neers

4. Ari­ma Gold­en Sym­pho­ny

4. Co­corite West Win

6. Co­dring­ton Pan Fam­i­ly

7 Gold­en Hands

8. Mer­ry­tones

9. Fas­ci­na­tors Pan Sym­pho­ny

10. T&TEC New East Side Di­men­sion

11. Tor­na­does

12. Pan­de­mo­ni­um

13. San City Steel Sym­pho­ny

14. Old Tech

15. Sim­ple Song

16. West Stars

17. New Gen­er­a­tion

18. Mu­si­cal Gems

18. South­ern Marines

20. To­ba­go Pan-Thers

Panora­ma (Medi­um Bands) semi­fi­nal­ists:

1. NGC Cou­va Joy­lan­ders

2. Curepe Scherzan­do

3. Courts Sound Spe­cial­ists of Laven­tille

4. NL­CB Buc­cooneers

5. Pan El­ders

5. Val­ley Harps

7. Petrotrin Katzen­jam­mers

8. Carib Dix­ieland

8. Steel Xplo­sion

10. Ari­ma An­gel Harps

11. Pow­er Stars

11. Melo­di­ans

13. Pam­beri

14. San­gre Grande Cordettes