The Laven­tille Steel­band Fes­ti­val Foun­da­tion (LSFF) will in May present a con­cert ti­tled 8 of Hearts at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts, Port-of-Spain. The con­cert fea­tures reign­ing Na­tion­al Panora­ma cham­pi­on Petrotrin Phase II Pan Groove along with the oth­er sev­en top plac­ing Large Con­ven­tion­al steel or­ches­tras in the fi­nals of the 2014 Na­tion­al Panora­ma cham­pi­onships.This which event takes place on May 16 and 17 will see per­for­mances by Neal & Massy Trinidad All Stars, bpTT Rene­gades, Wit­co Des­per­a­does, Re­pub­lic Bank Ex­o­dus, CAL In­vaders, PCS Ni­tro­gen Sil­ver Stars and Skif­fle Steel.

The bands will per­form their 2014 Panora­ma se­lec­tions along with oth­er mu­sic, of­fer­ing a blend of ca­lyp­so, reg­gae, jazz, pop and more. The steel­bands will each have 30 min­utes on stage and will be al­lowed to in­cor­po­rate oth­er in­stru­ments and even vo­cals in their per­for­mances.The 8 of Hearts con­cert was in­tro­duced as part of the Car­ifes­ta of 2006 and proved to be a great suc­cess, en­cour­ag­ing the LSFF to make the con­cert a bi­en­ni­al af­fair. In the years since the con­cert has evolved from a com­mu­ni­ty event to a ma­jor event on the na­tion­al cul­tur­al cal­en­dar.This will be the fifth run­ning of the 8 of Hearts con­cert and the LSFF promis­es the most ex­cit­ing one to date.