Sheer Pandemonium

Locals in Trinidad and Tobago call it "the big lime"—Caribbean slang for a serious shindig. But the national semifinals of Panorama, an annual music festival that this year takes place on Feb. 12, serve up something headier than fruit juice. The exuberant competition pits around 30 professional steel bands of 60 to 120 members against each other in front of a crowd of 15,000. Fans sing, cheer their favorite bands, and catch up with friends and neighbors while picnicking on pelau (a rice and peas mixture), macaroni pie, souse (a spicy soup made from either pigs' or chickens' feet), jerk chicken...