Pan lovers came with their cool­ers and drinks to hear sweet pan mu­sic in the Grand Stand on Sat­ur­day and weren't dis­ap­point­ed. It wasn't a Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion, how­ev­er, the medi­um and large steel­bands that took part in the “Mu­si­cal Show­down in De Big Yard” played their hearts out in sheer joy to the ap­pre­cia­tive au­di­ence.

They were vy­ing for pa­trons' sup­port in­stead in the Peo­ple's Choice Award, where peo­ple can vote for which steel­band they thought played the best.

To vote, they had to go to the FUND­MET­NT.COM site, search “Mu­si­cal Show­down in De Big Yard” click the link, click do­nate now and write a brief mes­sage with their band's name for Peo­ple's Choice.

Eleven medi­um and 12 large steel­bands en­gaged in a clash of mu­si­cal steel ti­tans. The event was host­ed by Pan Trin­ba­go in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion.

Medi­um bands played ei­ther a Panora­ma-arranged song or a Bomb tune, while the large bands per­formed both gen­res.

The To­ba­go-based Katzen­jam­mers Steel Or­ches­tra made a guest ap­pear­ance.

Some bands came with mul­ti­ple flag­bear­ers in Car­ni­val cos­tumes. Pow­er Stars Steel Or­ches­tra played Long Time and ac­com­pa­nied on stage by two Car­ni­val floats.

All the bands played with fre­net­ic en­er­gy and ex­u­ber­ance pent up af­ter two years with­out Panora­ma.

Na­tion­al Panora­ma Medi­um Band 2020 Cham­pi­ons NGC Cou­va Joy­lan­ders was the last medi­um band to per­form and put on a scin­til­lat­ing and riv­et­ing per­for­mance play­ing Essence and Free Up.

Many of their play­ers wore face shields and the joy was ev­i­dent as their per­for­mance was ac­cen­tu­at­ed by spe­cial ef­fects, strobe lights con­fet­ti and smoke.