Trinidad & Tobago Carnival's steel pan competition in photos
One of the highlights of Trinidad and Tobago's annual Carnival celebrations is the Panorama competition. It's a musical contest that pits the country's best steel orchestras against one another as they play a specially arranged instrumental rendition — marked by original variations — of a popular calypso or soca music tune.
The competition has been held every year since its inauguration in 1963, save for 1979, when it was boycotted as a symbolic gesture of support for the steelband movement pioneer Rudolph Charles, and his fight to gain respect and better recognition for pannists.
Read more: This Trinidad and Tobago steelband changed its tune, prompting discussion on a steelpan policy
The bands compete in small, medium and large categories. There is also a single pan category and Panorama competitions for both primary and secondary schools.
In recent years, rather than have every stage of the competition hosted at a big venue like the Queen's Park Savannah in Port of Spain, judges have been visiting the pan yards — the community spaces where bands are headquartered — to grade them during the preliminary round of the competition. These events always attract a lot of public patronage, with pan lovers visiting several pan yards over the course of the season, supporting their favourite bands and sizing up the competition.
Carnival's most popular pan-related event, though, is the Panorama semi-finals, where steelpan enthusiasts can enjoy a wide cross-section of performances from the spectators’ areas, and even get in and amongst the bands on what is known as “The Drag” — the area leading to the main stage where the bands line up in order of appearance and practice their drills. Fans and supporters also help roll their instruments — which are mounted on clusters of wheeled platforms with canopies — to the stage, where bands battle for a place in the finals of the most prestigious prize in steel pan music.
As she is every year, photographer Maria Nunes was on hand at the Queen's Park Savannah on February 9, 2020 for the National Panorama Semi-Finals, which featured the medium and large steel orchestras. Here's a taste of the atmosphere was like Nunes’ spectacular photos, presented here with permission:
The large band Panorama finals is scheduled for February 22, 2020.
Originally published in Global Voices.