PANDEMIC KNOCKS OUT PAN - NO JAB, NO PAN

When life was normal, pro-Covid-19, on Tuesday, December 10, 2019, C2K20 was in full swing with the Small Bands National Panorama preliminary being held that evening. Preliminary rounds of competition for Single Pan steel ensembles had also been already completed.

The Small Conventional Steel Orchestra 2020 championship was eventually won by Uptown Fascinators. Also, the 2020 Single Pan title was shared between San Juan East Side Symphony and Marsicans. Other National Panorama champion steel orchestras for 2020 were Couva Joylanders (Medium) and Desperadoes (Large).

Covid-19 forced the cancellation of the National Panorama competition in 2021 and, most likely, there will again be no competition in 2022.

The executive of Pan Trinbago Inc, led by Beverly Ramsey-Moore, is at its wit's end in deciding how the national instrument can be featured during what is supposed to be the lead-up to T&T Carnival 2022, and beyond.

For certain, there won't be a National Panorama competition as we know it, or, any other Steelband event that requires congregating.

With the majority of pannists still being unvaccinated, there's not even a slim chance that an event can be produced that would be exclusive to the vaccinated.

In some of the nation's steelbands, only junior members are vaccinated so they may have to step up and fill the breach if a vaccine-only event is organized. Then again, with so few pan lovers of the wider public vaccinated, attendance for any event will be considerably low and simply not worth the effort to produce.

Calypsonians are said to be prophets and testimony of this is found 36 years ago when late calypsonian Merchant composed and performed the classic "Pan in Danger" in 1985. If there was ever a time that the national instrument has been in danger, it's now, in this time of the Covid-19 pandemic.