NCC head denies over-selling tickets

Asked to respond to the claim made in another daily newspaper as well as complaints over the unavailability of Grand Stand tickets, de Silva said: “Absolutely not true! The NCC did not oversell tickets for Sunday’s show nor did we say that grand stand tickets were not available.” The article also stated that Pan Trinbago PRO Michael Joseph accused the NCC of being the cause of Panorama going till after 4 am Monday. Joseph admitted in the article that they wanted to give small bands the opportunity to play to the big stage audience but that never happened since the stands remained almost bare for more than half of the small bands presentations.

Small bands took from 9.30 am on Sunday until 5.26 pm to get through their paces, after which the medium bands played from 5.46 pm to 10.20 pm, then came the start of the 14 large bands.

Recalling a time when small bands had their day to shine with much larger audiences wherever the semi final was held on the day before the medium and large band semi finals, de Silva too, wondered why small bands were listed to appear on Sunday.

He then added that the NCC will be putting out an advertisement in all dailies within 48 hours to clarify their position on panorama.