Sadeke Brooks, Staff Reporter

Partygoers should expect heavy traffic on the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus, today when both Fun In the Son and the UWI carnival road march will be held there.

For many years, the road march has been held on campus. It bypasses most halls of residence, goes around the Ring Road and then ends at the Students' Union, which is a short distance from the UWI Bowl, where Fun In The Son will be held today.

But for the first time, Fun In The Son, which is a gospel event, will be held on campus on the same day as the road march. Fun In The Son will be accompanied by WarCry, which is a gospel road march from the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre to the UWI Bowl before the stage show begins.

With the two competing road marches, traffic is a concern.

Roger Bent, president of the UWI Guild of Students, said: "Traffic will be a problem. Fun In The Son is mostly for kids in the day and by the time carnival is winding down, the stage show part of Fun In The Son will kick in."

prepared

Assistant Commissioner of Police Keith Gardener, director of security at UWI, Mona, said there will be heavy traffic but preparations are being put in place for it.

"Certainly, there will be traffic issues 'cause we are expecting quite a lot of people to attend both events. Appropriate actions will be taken to deal with it, as well as heightened security personnel," Gardener said.

He said more than 120 security personnel would be deployed to man the traffic and secure the campus.

In addition, a critical-incident command centre has been set up at the Old Library, which is located in the centre of the two events.

Bent said the organisers for the two events have been accommodating. So, instead of going around the entire campus, the road march will end at the maintenance building, which is at least a half mile from the UWI Bowl. Hence, the road march will not disturb the gospel show and vice versa.

"It won't be a bother because it (the road march) will be as far away from them as possible, not because we want to separate them, but by nature of the difference in the type of events, (it is the only way) that both of them can function," Bent said.

Tommy Cowan, of Glory Music, which stages Fun In The Son, said traffic would be a problem but during meetings with road march organisers and the university administration, all the kinks were ironed out.

"We were never really aware that there is a carnival date up there at first. We have met with the organisers and they agreed to move the event farther away from us so that the music from both events can't affect each other. Our main event is at 4 p.m. so it also gives the people from carnival the chance to experience Fun In The Son," Cowan said.