Jump and wave . . . All roads lead to UWI Carnival

The student representative body at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill campus has hit the ground running with its annual UWIVAL celebrations.

After a week of classes, students turned out in their numbers on Valentine’s Day at the guild union for the PACE band launch, where partygoers were given a glimpse of the costumes for this year’s annual celebration. The UWI Cave Hill’s National Affairs Committee Chairperson Siobhan Phipps who is coordinating this year’s effort, has promised that UWIVAL will surpass its usual standard.

And while Friday evening’s turnout was not massive, it was indeed a melting pot of regional integration and cultural representation ahead of UWIVAL’s climax in early April.

Models brought to life the creativity of the island’s youngest designers as they graced a catwalk erected behind the students’ union to showcase the wide array of colours, patterns and styles being offered by each band.

The recently formed BAYMASS band was well represented. Models displayed five costumes, all of them highlighting the band’s fuchsia, gold and orange colours.

The band Fuego was also well represented with three options for female revellers. These include two-piece, one-piece and crop-top costumes, all draped in the band’s fiery orange colours. Males jumping with Fuego will have the choice of either a yellow or white T-shirt with the band’s logo printed on the front.

Meanwhile, the band Xtacy was considerably more colourful, with base colours of bright pink and turquoise for two of its one-piece female costumes as well as a two-piece costume with the colours gold and salmon.

Students partied throughout the night, from 10 p.m. until the wee hours of Saturday morning to the sounds of deejays Ramon G and DJ Saddy.

The campus, now in a festive mood, will be treated to weekly guild limes and socials under the theme Carnival Thursdays. The campus’ annual jouvert will also take place in early April.

As UWIVAL inches closer to its climax, organisers have promised two new events, though those events have not yet been made public. (KS)