Two weeks ago, I wrote that "the problem of good quality accommodation for Carnival and pan has not gone away simply because a "new" grandstand has been built and the three million dollars a throw North Stand is erected every year."

The ugly confrontation between the police and North Stand/Greens patrons at last Sunday's Panorama semifinals underlines this.

It is 20 years or more that the crowds who wish to attend Panorama Sunday are far greater than the accommodation available in the North Stand. Last Sunday's incident was by no means the first fence busting confrontation between crowds of patrons and either the police or regiment.

I had my North Stand days and can testify personally to the occurrence of such events or to tensions which were evaded by simply permitting the North Stand to be dangerously over crowded. I was there that year in the 80s when the North Stand swayed with the weight of the crowd.

I will not enter into either side of the unproductive argument of whether "we lawless and have no behaviour", or "the police are brutal". Confrontations between crowds and law enforcement will always end with excesses of behaviour and with such divisions.

Just last year in the area of the New York Labour Day celebrations there was a high profile incident between the NYPD and a city councillor of Caribbean origin.

If 30,000 persons wish to attend Panorama Sunday, or be in the vicinity of the event, they should be accommodated. Pan needs an audience of that size and the revenue that flows from it.

Pan Trinbago is to be complimented for the concept of having "Greens", when the previous Government demolished the Grand Stand and abandoned Panorama in Port of Spain. It is my recollection that the concept of the Greens emerged during the Patrick Arnold administration of Pan Trinbago. The new administration under Keith Diaz is to be equally complimented for re-locating and expanding the Greens in an effort to embrace a significant market of pan followers.

It is also a stroke of marketing genius to offer movement between the North Stand and the newly located Greens, particularly because it provides the significant market for pan followers, who do not wish to be "stuck in one place" for hours on end, the option of both following pan and partying with the artistes who perform within the Greens as part of one Super Sunday event.

We need the repeat business of the market of North Stand/ Greens pan followers and I look forward to collaboration between the experienced heads of Messrs Arnold and Diaz to refine and make the concept work for the advancement of pan. The gross revenue potential for Pan Trinbago for its stroke of marketing genius is in the $3 million to $5 million dollar range and it is a noteworthy step towards decreasing the dependency syndrome of the pan movement.

I do not buy into the idea that the pan followers of the North Stand/Greens variety are disrespecting anything. They are enjoying the event in their own way and no enlightened promoter can set its face totally against unthreatening generational changes in behaviour. Moreover, the "jammin" of the posses for the first time in a long while was not continuously disturbing of the pan onstage and it was responsive to requests from the house announcer when necessary.

What happened on Sunday last was a consequence of the fact that our musical cup of pan has runneth over and, as I tried to describe last Sunday, is drawing together many sections of society who may not follow pan hardcore but take a strong seasonal interest in pan; and that is all to the good.

If they wish to be in the vicinity of the great event but not to be pinned down in the testing conditions of the North Stand, particularly the hot sun of its western end, that is entirely understandable and capable of accommodation within the North Stand/Greens concept, which I repeat must be expanded and refined to reduce the challenges of crowd and noise control.

For its part, Pan Trinbago must recognise that a major contributor to the restlessness of the crowd is the ordeal of waiting for the big guns. In every form of entertainment, including major sporting entertainment, Prime Time is reserved for the big guns. It is quite wrong therefore to organise the Panorama semifinals on any basis other than putting the large bands on stage in Prime Time. Precisely what that time is, may need some negotiation with the participating steelbands.

One obvious benefit of not creating ordeal conditions while waiting for the appearance of the big guns is that the crowds will be more focused with what is happening on the stage and less focused on the supporting entertainment. We should be using the music not the police bootoo as the primary instrument of crowd control.