De­spite fin­ish­ing sec­ond in both the pre­lim­i­nary and se­mi-fi­nal rounds of the 2026 Na­tion­al Panora­ma Small Con­ven­tion­al Bands com­pe­ti­tion, To­ba­go’s Up­town Fas­ci­na­tors rose to the mo­ment on Sat­ur­day night, daz­zling a mod­est but com­mit­ted crowd at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do, to cap­ture the na­tion­al ti­tle along­side Siparia’s South­ern Stars Steel Or­ches­tra.

The up­set vic­to­ry crowned a dra­mat­ic fi­nal that un­fold­ed un­der in­ter­mit­tent driz­zle, as steel­pan lovers braved the weath­er, um­brel­las in hand, de­ter­mined to savour a night of sweet steel.

Dressed in neon green and black, Up­town Fas­ci­na­tors de­liv­ered more than a per­for­mance. They em­bod­ied their tune of choice, Crazy’s 2007 pan com­po­si­tion Band from Space, trans­form­ing the stage in­to a sci-fi spec­ta­cle. The band adorned its pre­sen­ta­tion with space­ship-in­spired el­e­ments, vi­su­al­ly re­in­forc­ing the oth­er­world­ly theme of the mu­sic.