Carnival in Rio

candid Brazil tips

 

Why
Carnival in Rio
is special

Carnival in Rio has been called the world's most famous party. A million tourists join millions of Rio de Janeiro citizens ("cariocas") in enthusiastic revelry spanning several days.

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Carnival of Rio
highlights

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Top three

The Sambodromo parade is number one. Close runners-up are the street processions and masquerade balls.

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Sambodromo
parade

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Statistics

The Sambodromo is a 700-meter (half-mile) long parade strip flanked by spectator stands and luxury boxes. On the last Sunday and Monday nights before Lent, the seats are filled with over 60,000 eager on-lookers. Tickets cost up to hundreds of dollars each and sell out quickly.

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Chief attraction

It's the sounds and sights of the parading samba schools that goes on from dusk to day break.

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Samba
school defined

A samba school has nothing to do with education. It is typically a group from a poor neighborhood organized to produce a lavish Carnival of Rio procession - for the fun of it.

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Selective

Only the best 14 samba schools parade through the big-time Sambodromo (the rest conduct street processions).

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Keen Carnival
in Rio competition

Every samba school strives to be judged the best overall.

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Slow moving

It can take over an hour for a single samba school to pass a given point along the parade route.

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Carnival in Rio floats

Each samba school has showy floats, which are often adorned with sensuous females vibrating to the hypnotic music.

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Bands and
singer-dancers

The floats are accompanied by marching samba bands numbering up to 300 musicians - their drummers ceaselessly pound the contagious samba beat. All are escorted by a sea of flamboyantly or scantily clad singer-dancers.

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Concerted effort

These diverse parade elements must work as a single unit, dramatizing the same theme, which the samba school changes annually for the Carnival in Rio.

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Preparation

A school can have up to 4,000 participants, so melding the ensemble into an organic whole is no easy task. The preparation requires nearly a year of sewing, building, composing, choreographing and rehearsing.

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Labor of love

Samba school participants pay for their own costumes, which costs some of them a sizable slice of their income. They willingly do this because Carnival in Rio is a fantasy escape, which helps them forget their hardscrabble lives.

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More Carnival in Rio
tips & insights

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Street
processions

Some samba schools are not invited to partake in the Sambodromo parade. Many take to the streets. Some parade in their neighborhoods and downtown Rio. Their festivities are free public affairs - passers-by may join the fun by dancing behind (and sometimes with) the group's samba dancers and marching bands. Here you directly participate while in the Sambodromo seats you mainly observe.

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Masquerade balls

These are celebrity-attended affairs. The merrymakers wear designer costumes and party from before midnight to the wee hours. It's an exciting and energetic experience (but admission costs up to $200 and the ballrooms tend to be jam-packed). The ball at the Copacabana Palace Hotel is the most famous.

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Carnival in Rio
schedules

Carnival in Rio takes place during the days preceding Ash Wednesday, the first of 40 meatless fasting days preceding Easter (Carnival derives from "carne vale" meaning "farewell to meat").

Although the official Carnival in Rio starting day is Saturday, the partying begins in earnest the night before and continues through Tuesday (Mardi Gras means "Fat Tuesday"). 

Here are the Carnival in Rio schedules for the next five years:

2010   Friday Feb 12  Tuesday Feb 16

2011   Friday Mar 4  Tuesday Mar 8

2012   Friday Feb 17  Tuesday Feb 21

2013   Friday Feb 8  Tuesday Feb 12

2014   Friday Feb 28  Tuesday Mar 4

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©2010 HQP / Hillman Quality Publications