In an effort to placate the steel orchestras from San Fernando, none of which has made it to the finals of the 2007 bmobile National Panorama Championships, Pan Trinbago is considering taking ten bands to the finals instead of the initial eight.
By Wayne BowmanPan Trinbago president, Patrick Arnold, told the Express yesterday that this would mean two smaller shows rather than the one main event at Skinner Park, San Fernando, on Carnival Saturday.
Supporters of TCL Group Skiffle Bunch and NLCB Fonclaire are up in arms over the exclusion of these two steel orchestras from the finals, because they believe their performances at Sunday's semi-final at the Queen's Park Savannah warranted them moving through to the finals.
Skiffle Bunch placed ninth in the semis with a score of 252 points, playing "Sharing Licks" arranged by Ken "Professor" Philmore, while Fonclaire placed 11th, scoring 248.5 points with "Pan Lamentation" arranged by Darren Sheppard.
"These bands played well and the crowd was very enthusiastic over their performances, but the judges either heard something we did not or found that something was missing that we did not pick up," Arnold said.
"I know what I like when I hear it and such is the case with other people, but the judges' decision is always final. We were, however, exploring the possibility of taking ten bands from each category into the finals, even before the semis came off yesterday, because of a request made by Pamberi."
He added, "We will explore how we can legally carry ten bands into the final and this will clear the way for at least one of the South bands to get in. If we do this, that will mean having to split the finals of the medium and large bands because we can't have 20 bands competing in one night."
- Should Pan Trinbago increase the number of bands from eight to ten to accommodate South in the Panorama finals? Comment below!
