Carnival, Panorama launches on November 5, 6

Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival is scheduled to be launched on November 5 at the Queen’s Park Savannah and, quickly on the heels of that, Pan Trinbago is expected to launch Panorama 2023 on November 6 at Massy Trinidad All Stars pan theatre, Duke Street, Port of Spain.

The launch will take place from 5.30 pm on that day.

In a social media post on Thursday, the pan body also shared its 2023 schedule of events, which showed the pan competition starting on November 26 with the single pan semifinals.

This will be followed by the single pan finals on December 3 at the Queen’s Park Savannah.

The small conventional bands semifinal will take place on January 7 at Victoria Square, Port of Spain. The small conventional finals will take place on January 14 at the Queen’s Park Savannah.

Junior Panorama finals will be held on January 22 at the Queen’s Park Savannah.

The medium and large semifinals, often called the Savannah party, will be held on February 5 at the Queen’s Park Savannah.

On February 12 the Dwight Yorke Stadium, Tobago will host the Panorama medium conventional bands final, and on February 18 the large conventional bands final will be held at the Queen’s Park Savannah.

In a phone interview, Pan Trinbago’s president Beverley Ramsey-Moore said the body was very excited going into the 60th anniversary of Panorama.

“Our events committee is on the ball with their game plan in terms of the launch. We expect all of the Panorama winners to participate: Desperadoes Steel Orchestra, Massy Trinidad All Stars, senior and junior bands.”

Small band winner Tobago’s Uptown Fascinators Steel Orchestra and medium band winner NGC Couva Joylanders Steel Orchestra will also entertain at the event.

The pan body receives its allocation for Panorama from the National Carnival Commission (NCC) and it is aware that Pan Trinbago is going into its diamond jubilee, Ramsey-Moore said.

She added that the body expects to have its budgetary expectations met, given this.

“What is going to make it very exciting, we are going to increase, for the final, the large bands. We are going to have 12 large bands going into finals and 12 medium bands going into the final,” she said.

At the last Panorama in 2020, there were 11 large bands competing.

Both the medium and large final will be stand-alone events, she said.

Ramsey-Moore said Pan Trinbago anticipates a huge turnout for both the medium and large band final.

“There are going to be a lot of giveaways to mark that diamond jubilee celebration. We are going to ensure our patrons are comfortable and well satisfied with the offerings for our jubilee celebrations.”

She said she hopes the expectations of the bands will be met for Carnival 2023, when asked if there would be an increase in prize money come next year.

Carnival will be held on February 20 and 21 next year.