Panorama prize leaps to $320,000

February 02, 2001
By Terry Joseph

FROM $38,000 just three years ago, the first prize for conventional steel orchestras has this year taken a leap to $320,000.

Pan Trinbago president Patrick Arnold yesterday announced the increase at a news conference to launch the current edition of Panorama, at which he outlined several changes to the competition format.

The launch, which was held at the Woodbrook Playboyz panyard on Tragarete Road in Port of Spain, started more than one hour late, with Pan Trinbago officials claiming to be waiting on the Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) crew who, incidentally, never showed up.

The whopping increase in the value of the first prize comes in the form of a $180,000 van, which will be awarded to this year’s champion, in addition to the cash-prize of $140,000, which came into effect last year.

Arnold said Pan Trinbago really aimed to give the champs a truck as a prize, to help cut the winning band’s transportation costs, but fell short of its expectations and could now only afford a vehicle to move players. The van, a panel version of which was on display at the launch, holds ten people.

The first qualifying round for conventional orchestras will take place next weekend at the Queen’s Park Savannah in Port of Spain. This year, the preliminary will be staged on Saturday and Sunday, with special ticket prices to accommodate fans wishing to attend on both days.

North Stand tickets will now cost $75 and Grant Stand tickets $60 for each day, but package deals for both days are set at $140 and $110, respectively.

A nominal $10 fee will be charged for children accompanied by their parents.

The tickets, Arnold said, were being produced by a technology that made them impossible to duplicate, a move by Pan Trinbago to reduce seating complications on those nights where accommodation is reserved and people purchasing tickets from scalpers may be unwittingly sold counterfeit.

Arnold also waded into the Government, saying it is the State that runs Panorama, with Pan Trinbago as its employees, only producing the event.

After the Trinidad leg of the preliminary round at the Savannah on February 10 and 11 and the Tobago playoffs two days later at Shaw Park, 20 conventional bands will advance to the semi-final round, which will take place on February 18. At that rung, bands will also perform an additional song for adjudication in the Pan in the 21st Century competition.

The national Panorama final for conventional bands will be held on Carnival Saturday, February 24. Trinidad’s single pan bands will have their preliminaries on the streets of Port of Spain on February 8 and 9, with the national final being held at South Quay on February 23.

Arnold urged bands to move quickly in setting up their instruments, saying “the public does not come to the Savannah to see people push pan racks, it comes to hear the music. The maximum amount of time onstage should be spent playing.”

Last year, Pan Trinbago introduced a special prize for the band that set up its instruments in the shortest time.

The $5,000 prize was won by Solo Pan Knights.

The conventional band that emerges champion will have earned $314,000, the additional sums coming from appearance fees and financial assistance accruing at the preliminary and semi-final stages of the contest.

The draw for positions in both categories of the competition takes place on Saturday at the Queen’s Park Savannah from 1 pm.

Bands will draw both for which day they will perform and their playing positions.

Bigger Panorama $$ upsets some bands