The Na­tion­al Panora­ma medi­um band fi­nals will be held at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah this year af­ter dam­age to the new­ly-leased MV Blue Wave Har­mo­ny fer­ry forced or­gan­is­ers to aban­don plans to stage the event in To­ba­go.

Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore an­nounced the change while speak­ing at the draw for po­si­tions for the Panora­ma Se­mi-Fi­nal com­pe­ti­tion.

The medi­um band fi­nals, which have been host­ed in To­ba­go for the past few years, will now take place in Port-of-Spain on Mon­day and will be a free event.

Ram­sey-Moore said Pan Trin­ba­go had been ful­ly pre­pared to take the com­pe­ti­tion to To­ba­go once again.

“For the past few years, we have been do­ing the medi­um band fi­nals in To­ba­go. We were up and ready, set to go to To­ba­go on Sun­day,” she said.

How­ev­er, she ex­plained that cir­cum­stances changed fol­low­ing an in­ci­dent in­volv­ing the Blue Wave Har­mo­ny dur­ing its sec­ond sea tri­al on Jan­u­ary 30.

The ves­sel sus­tained dam­age to its hull while berthing at the Port of Scar­bor­ough and is cur­rent­ly out of ser­vice.

“But the sit­u­a­tion has de­vel­oped, and de­spite chal­lenges that may come in our way, as pan peo­ple we are re­silient, and we have found a way to treat this on­ly for this year,” Ram­sey-Moore said.

She said To­ba­go’s ab­sence from host­ing the event is tem­po­rary.

“To­day, To­ba­go, we want to let you know that it is on­ly for 2026, and we will be back in To­ba­go in 2027,” she said.

Ram­sey-Moore al­so ac­knowl­edged the role played by Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Jear­lean John in en­sur­ing arrange­ments were ini­tial­ly put in place to sup­port the move­ment of steel­bands.

“I want to com­mend the min­is­ter, Jear­lean John, for en­sur­ing that that ves­sel went to To­ba­go to bring the pans down,” she said.

She added that Pan Trin­ba­go’s ex­ec­u­tives have agreed to des­ig­nate the event as Lega­cy Mon­day, with a fo­cus on ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty and trib­ute to the steel­band move­ment.

Ram­sey-Moore in­vit­ed the pub­lic to at­tend, with a par­tic­u­lar ap­peal to young peo­ple and steel­pan sup­port­ers.

“We ask all our young peo­ple, as we pass on the lega­cy, and all our steel­pan en­thu­si­asts, all our sup­port­ers in T&T, to join us at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah,” she said.

She said the night would ho­n­our gen­er­a­tions of con­trib­u­tors to the art form.

Or­der of ap­pear­ance

1. Courts Sound Spe­cial­ists of Laven­tille

2. Curepe Scherzan­do Steel Or­ches­tra

3. Ari­ma An­gel Harps Steel Or­ches­tra

4. Dix­ieland Steel Or­ches­tra

5. San­gre Grande Cordettes Steel Or­ches­tra

6. Pan El­ders Steel Or­ches­tra

7. Sforza­ta Steel Or­ches­tra

8. Cou­va Joy­lan­ders Steel Or­ches­tra

9. Pam­beri Steel Or­ches­tra

10. Steel Xplo­sion Steel Or­ches­tra