UWI…Carnival??
Despite going to U.W.I Mona for my 1st Degree, I never took part in, or even observed UWI carnival. So, I really had no idea what to expect from the experience this year. So before I go on, I’ll let the video below do some of the talking for me. Take a look.
What has been seen cannot be unseen
Ok, so for those of you that couldn’t be bothered to watch the video, let me try and sum it up for you. From where I stood (behind the Camera), UWI Carnival consisted of approximately 5 hours of hyper sexed students dry humping everything in sight. I know this sounds little extreme, but, to put it into perspective….One of the DJ’s had to ask a student if he was trying to impregnate the earth….seriously. I’ve seen quite a bit of stuff being said online about the ‘dancing’ and ‘behaviour’ of the students, so instead of adding to that with this review I’ll touch on some other stuff.
Like I said before, this was my first UWI Carnival experience so I had absolutely no idea what to expect and I have no past experiences to compare it to.
Try to see past the humping
Anyway, rabid dry humping aside, the vibe of the whole day for the most part was good. Drinks were flowing freely from the various trucks (Props to the Red Bull truck especially!) and students were out in large numbers all having a good time. The music for most of the day was spot on, with the various DJs on the trucks playing music not just from 2012, but 2011, 2010 and so on.
There were most definitely some stand out costumes. I’d even go so far as to say that the full white costume rivaled anything that Bacchanal Jamaica has offering for 2012. While the number of students actually wearing costumes was pretty small, those that did opt to go the full 9 yards definitely stood out! It really is apparent however, that the focus of UWI carnival isn’t the costumes.
BUCKETTTTT
One of the other things that stood out to me was the Island Mas Jamaica “Bucket Crew”. It really wasn’t until this year that I was introduced to the concept of drinking alcohol from “a bucket”. It’s definitely a new and interesting concept to me and I was very happy to see it introduced into UWI Carnival. The Bucket crew definitely took the concept and ran with it. Let’s see if Bacchanal Jamaica will take note and introduce it into their Carnival in the coming weeks.
The Bad
One of the major disappointments of the day for ME was the fact that late in the evening, “UWI Carnival” transformed into the “UWI Ring Road Dance”. What do I mean by that? Well, instead of sticking to Soca and the whole theme of Carnival, all the trucks seemed to simultaneously switch to playing dancehall. As I’ve said before, I love dancehall, but, that’s not what I’d expect from something being sold as a purely “Carnival” event. I know I Know, it’s what the students what, and this particular Carnival is for them. It was just a little surprising to see the whole thing transform instantaneously!
Everything considered it was a very interesting experience. I definitely had fun shooting it, and I can only imagine how much fun it must be as a student to take part in it. For now, I’m left wondering, if I had a daughter, would I let her take part in what I witnessed? OR, would I handcuff her to her bed until the whole thing was over?
I hear you. I have to point out though that the video is about UWI carnival only and that behavior stays there. Trust me, as a veteran of carnival in general, that Jamaica carnival is much more like Trinidad carnival with ‘wining’, real costumes and plenty of vibes (it’s a blast!!). It may be hard to convince you with this comment alone but don’t worry, we will have extensive video coverage of Jamaica carnival to prove our point!
There is nothing quite like “Doing the Double”!
Having been to Trinidad Carnival several times, I look at this video and wonder…where de winin’?
I see daggering, sure. Winin’? Not so much. When it comes to being on de road, soca, winin’, mas are fundamental. I see little of that in the UWI Mona “Carnival” video. Not sure why that is.
I don’t judge and I don’t honestly care. All I see is reason to continue going to Trinidad and not diverge to Jamaica. I see no fundamental problem with this; I’ve seen all kinds of badness in my time. However, to call it Carnival seems…misleading?
As for the bucket crew, sounds like we have some Swappi fans!
thanks for the comment. It’s always good to get different perspectives on stuff. After all, it’s part of why we blog 🙂
Well, while it might not be clear in this particular post, I’m a pretty BIG fan of Carnival, and soca music! In fact so much so that I did Trinidad carnival again this year and will be doing Jamaica Carnival again this year and who knows what else after, in addition to having my very own soca party. So, trust me, I have NO ill feelings towards carnival at all.
Ironically I don’t think my view on the UWI Carnival was that bad. I even went as far as to say in the video that I had fun for the day. Unlike MANY others (and I’m sure if you’ve been checking the comments for some of the photos on facbeook you’ve seen them) I chose not to focus on the ‘indecent behaviour’ as you put it, and rather on the other aspects of the day, like the music, the costumes and the ‘bucket crew’ in my post.
On the video being biased. I’m not sure how why you would think so. I TRIED to show footage from the whole day, featuring all aspects of the carnival. I was actually there for almost 5 hours, and I can pretty much assure you that what you saw in the video is as unbiased a view of the carnival as one could fit in a 4 minute video. I tried to cover the costumes, people dancing (which is the part I think you’re talking about) the excitement and fun of the water truck, the drinks, and so on. So I HONESTLY don’t see how you could think the video was ‘biased’. I’m definitely curious to hear why you think so (or anyone else might think so).
🙂
Your obvious disdain for the carnival and the behaviour of the individual is clear. I can even aggree with you about the behaviour being indecent as I myself do not subscribe to those behaviours.
What I do however believe in is the freedom of expression and privacy. Yes, they were dancing in the open but that gave you NO permission to record there act nor help to further popagate their actions during the event on the web.
By the way, this video is VERY bias.I peeped from a window on Saturday and at one point even when outside to take a closer look. The view of this video does not capture the event in its entirety and is just highlighting the worst case scenarios.
Remember this post is by thinkAkil not ManLi. ManLi didn’t ask that question in his post because I KNOW my daughter will be handcuffed in 16 years for Uwi carnival:). I think the costumes were just made to look like bliss.:)
Different take on Ring Road Mas. Clearly not like that in my days. LehWeGo…if you had a daughter…remember that you do have a daughter. Ahhh. What if you had a son, would you let handcuff him too? Looked like one huge daggering festival to me. As for the white costumes…didnt you realize that those were from last years left over from BLISS???