When last I left my saga yesterday I had three friends without a ticket and all the North Stand tickets sold out. On arrival at the Savannah we found nothing had changed, signs were posted all over stating that there were no more North Stand tickets to be sold. Sclapers were actually trying to buy tickets from patrons, so you know at that point how bad it was, and they were reselling at $600.00TT, double the original price. Being the only one of my now crew of 5 with a ticket I decided if they did not get in I would sell mine for the going rate as well.
As luck, ingenuity and some quick thinking would have it everyone got into Panorama and NO we did not secure 4 tickets miraculously and I cannot reveal what the details of the transaction were but suffice to say by 2PM were we all inside the brand new North Stand. The concept this year was to merge the traditional North Stand experience with that of the Greens that patrons have become accustomed to over the last few years. I think this worked beautifully.
All the large "crews" such as Bmobile, Island People, Unit Trust, YUMA, Red Ants and Insomniacs were placed in tented areas in the greens. Some occupied more than one tent, others had sofas to relax on and Bmobile constructed a stage where live performances took place during the day. There were also Moko Jumbies and dancing displays in that space as well. Kes took to the stage in an impromptu concert, and patrons were also serenaded by J.W. & Blaze, Saucy Wow and Iwer.
Product girls were offering you all manner of free drinks and snacks and the Nescafe tent gave patrons body paint if they wanted. And there were bars set up as well as various places to buy something to eat. It was like a big open air picnic/festival/concert with rhythm sections and lots and lots of people! I saw people I had not seen in years, always something I enjoy when going to Panorama.
The North Stands by contrast had patrons actually sitting down listening to the bands on stage, there were some "crews" there as well, like Digicel and We Ting but I saw more individual, independent groups walking with their coolers of drinks and foiled covered containers of food. Because of the new layout I did not find the North Stand to be as cramped as it was in years past, there was enough space to walk the aisles and the Rhythm Sections were noticeably absent. Since I spent some of my time in the stands my pet peeve albeit was the disrespect given to the bands performing on stage by some of the Rhythm Sections on the Greens who did not stop to allow the patrons in the North Stand to hear what was being played! I found this to be discourteous especially when one Rhythm Section was so loud the whole North Stand reverberated from the percussion!
The Grand Stand with it's padded chairs was under occupied, you know the North Stand is the place to be when the President shows up in convoy to be escorted to his reserved VIP area of the North Stand! Overall I enjoyed the return to the North Stand coupled with the Greens and the stage looked AWESOME! I hope for 2012 that he NCC and Pan Trinbgao limit the amount of tickets that are sold to Crews and Sponsored Sections so that everyone can get the same opportunity to enjoy Panorama to the fullest!
5 comments:
The hole in the fence
hi Saucy,
As usual i enjoy your reviews on events since most of the time i would agree with you. i loved the vibe at Panorama yesterday and it truly felt like a picnic/trade fair atmosphere outside at the greens. however, i did not appreciate that blink stage with performers at all and the disrespect to the pan players and lovers of our beloved instrument. For the first time i felt so happy to be part of an audience of the greatest musical instrument on earth being played by Trinbagonians and yet the North stand had to get constant reminders to stop the music and respect the performers.
In all, i took a few moments reliving my great times i had on the stage and the stands many years ago.
It's amazing to me how everything in Carnival is becoming All Inclusive... like you said change is good and it's the only constant and it is good to evolve, BUT isn't pan everybody's thing? I mean, Pan has always been accessible to everybody, the good times I've had at Pan (up to finals) are unparalleled by any concert I've ever been too. $300 to get into the North Stand??? I've NEVER paid to get into the North Stand in my life! And while it's good that more people are paying hopefully that money goes to the panmen and not the NCC or whoever is in control of pan today. And people have always been disrespectful to the bands onstage unless it was Despers or some big band but it sounds like it's gotten worse! Who goes to pan and says they hope it's not too loud??? WTF??? Pure disrespect!! Do they not realize this is our thing??? *pissed*
Fête!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PARDYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wine to the side!!!!!!!
Yes atlhottie, you talk the truth there! I listened online and I was embarrassed that the rhytmn section held up the show a few times because their noise overpowered the pan. C'mon it's PANorama, not ironorama. Some people really out of order.
Thanks for the review Saucy.
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