DAVID CUFFY

The fourth edi­tion of the Eight of Hearts Steel­band Con­cert, pro­duced by the Laven­tille Steel­band Fes­ti­val Foun­da­tion (LSFF), takes place on May 19 on the grounds of the Laven­tille Com­mu­ni­ty Com­plex, East­ern Main Road, Laven­tille, start­ing at 7 pm. The event fea­tures per­for­mances by steel­bands plac­ing in the top eight po­si­tions of the Large band cat­e­go­ry in the 2012 Na­tion­al Panora­ma Com­pe­ti­tion.

Be­cause of the tie for eighth place at this year's Panora­ma, nine bands will ap­pear at the con­cert. They are, in or­der of ap­pear­ance:

• Fon­claire

• RBTT Re­demp­tion Sound­set­ters

• CAL In­vaders

• So­lo Har­monites

• Re­pub­lic Bank Ex­o­dus

• BP Rene­gades

• PCS Ni­tro­gen Sil­ver Stars

• Petrotrin Phase II Pan Groove

• Neal & Massy Trinidad All Stars.

The bands are al­lowed to in­clude oth­er mu­si­cal in­stru­ments in pre­sent­ing their reper­toire dur­ing their al­lot­ted 30 min­utes on stage. The in­no­v­a­tive use of a dou­ble stage al­lows for changeover time be­tween bands held to three min­utes. The in­au­gur­al con­cert was pro­duced for Car­ifes­ta IX in 2006, and re­peat­ed bi­en­ni­al­ly in 2008 and 2010.

Tick­ets for the event went on sale on Wednes­day April 18, and are avail­able at the pa­n­yards of par­tic­i­pat­ing bands, pop­u­lar tick­et out­lets, the Laven­tille Com­mu­ni­ty Com­plex, and from mem­bers of the LSFF com­mit­tee. Se­cure park­ing for ve­hi­cles will be avail­able.