Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - The long-awaited “Musical Showdown in De Big Yard” featuring Medium and Large conventional steel orchestras takes centre stage at Carnival City, Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain, Trinidad, on Saturday February 26 from 5:00 p.m.
Eleven medium and twelve large steelbands will be main item on the menu in “A Taste of Carnival 2022.”
Staged by Pan Trinbago in collaboration with the National Carnival Commission, ‘Musical Showdown in De Big Yard’ is a taste of Panorama and J’Ouvert.
Medium Bands can play EITHER a Panorama-arranged song or a Bomb tune, whilst the Large Bands will perform both genres.
For this event, the bands were scaled down in terms of players with Medium bands fielding between 35 and 45 players while their Large Band membership range between 50 to 60 players.
After four days of intense scrutiny in terms of number of players, vaccination status and music, the selectors chose the following bands for “De Showdown.”
Qualifying bands:-
| Medium Steel Orchestras | Large Steel Orchestras |
| 1. Tornadoes | 1. Tropical Angel Harps |
| 2. Power Stars | 2. Starlift |
| 3. Moods | 3. Fonclaire |
| 4. Sangre Grande Cordettes | 4. Supernovas |
| 5. Valley Harps | 5. Invaders |
| 6. Pan Elders | 6. Skiffle |
| 7. Curepe Scherzando | 7. Exodus |
| 8. Pamberi | 8. Silver Stars |
| 9. Melodians | 9. Trinidad All Stars |
| 10. Arima Angel Harps | 10. Phase II Pan Groove |
| Katzenjammers - (Guest artist) | 11. Desperadoes |
| 11. Couva Joylanders | 12. Renegades |
Several awards will be presented to the Best Flag Wavers, the
Most Tech-Savvy Steel Orchestra and the People’s Choice during
the event.
Tickets cost TT $300.00 Grand Stand seating with PODS at TT $1500.00 (six-seater) and TT $2100.00 (nine-seater). These are available at NCC (National Carnival Commission) Head Office, Gray Street, Ticket Booth QPS, (on the day of the show), and online via ticketgetaway.com.
Small conventional steel orchestras and single pan bands had their turn on February 19 in “Pan in De Sancoche” with Tobago Defence Force Steel Orchestra & World Wide Steel Orchestra and Trinidad coming out on top.
The ‘Musical Showdown in De Big Yard’ venue is a safe zone opened to fully-vaccinated patrons and artists only. National COVID-19 protocols apply.
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