Katzen­jam­mers claimed the Medi­um Bands Panora­ma tro­phy in To­ba­go once again, achiev­ing a his­toric hat-trick vic­to­ry.

Last night’s show­down of steel and skill end­ed with Katzen­jam­mers reign­ing supreme once more.

The Black Rock-based pow­er­house de­liv­ered a com­mand­ing per­for­mance of Ly­ing Ex­cus­es, se­cur­ing its third con­sec­u­tive ti­tle at the Pa­rade Grounds—a buck­et list achieve­ment its arranger, Kersh Ram­sey, had set last year.

Last night, he de­scribed the win as a dream come true.

“Yes, we know what it takes to win a Panora­ma, but this one was spe­cial and much need­ed. I love my play­ers, and right now I’m feel­ing to cry be­cause to bring a hat-trick for Panora­ma is not some­thing easy to do, and with­in the process was a lot of sleep­less nights.”

With an elec­tri­fy­ing dis­play of mu­si­cal mas­tery and dra­ma, Katzen­jam­mers scored 281 points, fend­ing off fierce com­pe­ti­tion from Pan El­ders Steel Or­ches­tra, who de­liv­ered an im­pres­sive per­for­mance of Mih Lover to claim sec­ond place with 279 points.

The bat­tle for third place was just as in­tense, with NGC Cou­va Joy­lan­ders and Pam­beri Steel Or­ches­tra both de­liv­er­ing en­er­getic, crowd-pleas­ing per­for­mances to tie at 275 points. Their per­for­mances stood out as high­lights of the evening, but nei­ther could close the gap on the top two.

The con­test for the ti­tle re­mained fierce, but To­ba­go’s dom­i­nance was un­de­ni­able—a fact that Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine said speaks vol­umes about the is­land’s pan ex­cel­lence.

Au­gus­tine said, “I’m very proud of the work that Katzen­jam­mers has done, and what’s in­ter­est­ing is the first- and sec­ond-place arrangers are both from To­ba­go, which speaks to the qual­i­ty of our pan pro­gramme on the is­land.”

Mean­while, To­ba­go’s oth­er fi­nal­ist, Dix­ieland, placed eighth with 268 points af­ter per­form­ing Long Time. Though they fell short of the ti­tle, the band said the jour­ney to the fi­nals proved their strength.