Revellers at the UWI Carnival Ringroad Jam in 2006. - Nathaniel Stewart/Freelance Photographer

It is ironic that the song which made UWI Carnival hugely popular outside the campus may have just been the one to change it forever.

Alvin Campbell said "I have been accused by people in the know of actually mashing up the UWI Carnival."

In 1986 Ringroad Jam started betting massive airplay and he says "The video was the most popular video in Jamaica up to that point. It used to play five, six times a day." So, Campbell says, in 1986 UWI Carnival attracted about 5,000 to 6,000 people to the Mona campus, while in 1987 "there were an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 people at UWI Carnival".

"The crowd was so massive they split it in two sections. You had a dancehall section at Assembly Hall while Ringroad was going on," Campbell said.

However, "people said it did not have the same vibe".

And "In about three years it turned into a basic dancehall event that was superseded in the 1990s by Jamaica Carnival."

- MC