Twen­ty-one steel bands will com­pete in the NL­CB Na­tion­al Panora­ma 2020 Sin­gle Pan Fi­nals at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah on Sat­ur­day. 

Pan Trin­ba­go had ini­tial­ly planned to have the top 20 bands from the se­mi-fi­nal round, progress to the fi­nals but now have to ad­just due to mul­ti­ple ties at the event on Sun­day. 

There were two-way ties for the first, sev­enth, ninth, 18th and 20th places with two three-way ties for 11th and 15th place.

The draws meant that 21 bands placed in the top 20 based on their scores. 

A sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion oc­curred in the pre­lim­i­nary round lead­ing to one ex­tra band than orig­i­nal­ly card­ed be­ing af­ford­ed a spot in the se­mi-fi­nals. 

Mar­si­cans, of Mau­si­ca Road, D’Abadie, made the most of their home ad­van­tage at the Ari­ma Bas­ket­ball Court as they emerged as fore­run­ners along with reign­ing cham­pi­ons San Juan East Side Sym­pho­ny with 272 points. 

Be­sides the ties, the en­tire com­pe­ti­tion was tight with bands scor­ing on­ly one or two points more than those di­rect­ly be­low them. 

Al­though hun­dreds of pan en­thu­si­asts turned up for the event, on­ly a frac­tion opt­ed to pay the $100 ad­mis­sion fee to hear the bands de­liv­er their ren­di­tions be­fore the judges, as most chose to stick to the track lead­ing to the venue, where the bands prac­tised be­fore their per­for­mances. 

Those who paid the fee were not left dis­ap­point­ed as they en­joyed un­re­strict­ed ac­cess to the en­er­getic per­for­mances and ac­com­pa­ny­ing the­atrics of band mem­bers and their flag-bear­ing sup­port­ers. 

While the event at­tract­ed main­ly ma­ture at­ten­dees, youth was well rep­re­sent­ed in the bands in­clud­ing some that had mem­bers who were as young as six-years-old. 

The com­pe­ti­tion start­ed prompt­ly at 4 pm, with short in­ter­vals be­tween bands be­ing main­tained due to the for­mat of the com­pe­ti­tion, in which play­ers are re­quired to car­ry their in­di­vid­ual steel pans and stands to and from the judg­ing point.

Heav­ier per­cus­sion in­stru­ments are the on­ly ex­cep­tion and were dragged through on wheeled stands. 

In a brief in­ter­view, Pan Trin­ba­go Pres­i­dent Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore said she and her ex­ec­u­tive were pleased by their un­prece­dent­ed move to shift the com­pe­ti­tion away from the Car­ni­val sea­son. 

“The qual­i­ty of the sin­gle bands has im­proved. We have very pow­er­ful mu­sic here tonight and I am pleased,” Ram­sey-Moore said. 

She al­so claimed that the bands were pleased with the shift as the fi­nals will be held at the Grand Stand at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah for the first time. 

“They are all elat­ed be­cause they have a chance to cross the sa­van­nah stage,” Ram­sey-Moore said. 

Min­is­ter of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Cul­ture and the Arts Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly said she was en­joy­ing the event as the sin­gle pan com­pe­ti­tion is her favourite Panora­ma event. 

“Sin­gle pan has a nos­tal­gic feel be­cause it is the old songs. Its the best of the best you hear,” Gads­by-Dol­ly said. 

The draw for play­ing po­si­tions at Sat­ur­day’s fi­nal will take place on Wednes­day at 1 pm.