Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Mem­bers of de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Katzen­jam­mers have their eyes on a three-peat, de­ter­mined to claim a third con­sec­u­tive Medi­um Bands Panora­ma ti­tle at tonight’s fi­nals at the Pa­rade Grounds, near the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um, To­ba­go.

With back-to-back vic­to­ries in 2023 and 2024 and cop­ping the high­est points in this year’s semi­fi­nals, the Black Rock-based band and its arranger, Kersh Ram­sey, are now fo­cused on keep­ing the tro­phy in To­ba­go.

He said the band plans to make mu­si­cal mag­ic as it hopes to de­liv­er a per­for­mance it be­lieves will so­lid­i­fy its dom­i­nance.

Ram­sey told Guardian Me­dia on Fri­day night, “I know the band is go­ing to ex­e­cute to the best of their abil­i­ty, and I know every­body is go­ing to bring their A game, but I’m go­ing to bring my A-plus. I’m just so ex­cit­ed and over­whelmed at the same time, see­ing the prize is right there; it’s just to grab it.

“I am con­fi­dent to say yes, the tro­phy will stay in To­ba­go. Katzen­jam­mers, triple, hat trick. We are go­ing for it. We are not go­ing to come half-heart­ed; we are com­ing full 120 per cent. Ex­pect a move and show, a sto­ry­telling.”

An­oth­er To­ba­go band has its sights set on the crown. Carib Dix­ieland said af­ter mak­ing it through the pre­lim­i­nary and semi­fi­nal rounds, it is con­vinced that its 2025 pre­sen­ta­tion has what it takes to de­throne the cham­pi­ons.

The band is con­fi­dent in its abil­i­ty to go all the way, with hopes of not just se­cur­ing vic­to­ry for To­ba­go but bring­ing the ti­tle home to their com­mu­ni­ty. Car­ol Warn­er, man­ag­er, told Guardian Me­dia the team is con­fi­dent and ex­cit­ed.

“Fire­works, mag­ic, end­ing with a bang. We are play­ing in tenth po­si­tion, and we are hop­ing we will go from the end all the way to the top. This year for our 70th cel­e­bra­tion, we are push­ing to make it a mark.”

The two To­ba­go bands are among the ten fi­nal­ists for to­day’s grand show. As ear­ly as Fri­day morn­ing, eight of the Trinidad-based fi­nal­ist bands with ap­prox­i­mate­ly 700 play­ers ar­rived in To­ba­go. Mean­while, Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ly Ram­sey-Moore promised that the as­so­ci­a­tion will de­liv­er a fan­tas­tic show. She said some ad­just­ments have been made to im­prove the lo­gis­tics.

“We are go­ing to de­liv­er an­oth­er fan­tas­tic medi­um bands fi­nal. We have been able to get the THA to pave the To­ba­go drag, so the bands are def­i­nite­ly go­ing to en­joy that. Last year was a bit chal­leng­ing. We are putting the in­fra­struc­ture and lo­gis­tics in place. This year we have been able to over­come the chal­lenges. So, on Sun­day, it will be an­oth­er great day for us in the steel­pan fra­ter­ni­ty.”