Two Faces of Rio-Carnival

The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro ist famous for it´s parades of the Samba-Schools. But something else became the highlight for me…

After arrival I was drawn into the streets by one of the “blocos” as the Iocal parades are called. This first one was a group of young people, mainly foreigners, from neighboring countries who founded the ” Bloco” to promote the music from their countries. “Cariñito” from Peru is their lead song. The name of the “Bloco” is ” Besame mucho” (kiss me a lot).

During the week of Carnival music is everywhere and with around 500 “Blocos” parts of Rio are just one big party in the streets.

Of course we did not miss one  the official parades in the Sambódrome, the Stadium build by Oscar Niemeyer in 1984 just for this purpose. For 120 USD per Person we got one of the cheap seats to watch the “Champions Parade” on one of the two nights, when 7 of the best Samba-Schools present their shows. The show starts at 22.00 and last until next morning. Each school has about 90 minutes to perform and up to 6000 people participate. We saw four schools, starting with Impéro Serrano mit dem Titel “O que é, O que é ( What is it ? ). A big show about the meaning of life. Their show (and all others) are available on youtube. I just enjoyed taking my shots, quite difficult as we were not very close, it was crowded and partly raining.

Very important for the shows are the “Muse” , dancers heavily decorated which are the “chear-leader” or trademarks of each school. They have a long history with their respective Samba-School and news are focusing much on their personalities and performance.

The second Samba-School was Unidos do Viradouro. They turned out to become the second best group out of the 14 performing this year. Their theme were children stories and imaginary stories out of a book.

Third group was “Grand Rio” , who focused on modern technologies and “bad habits”. The showed the 10 commandments and drones in emoji-style.

The last group we watched at 3 a.m. was Acadèmicos d Solgueiro, telling the story of Xango, a  god of the brazilian Candomblé-Religion. Again lot´s of imagination. And the next morning back to the streets…

And to another “Bloco”, this time in Santa Theresa, an old neighborhood, once home to a Carmelite – Monastery. An old cable car leads up this community which is a major tourist attraction. The group which moved slowly downhill to the center of Rio got their name from this monastery, the call themselves “Carmelitas”. Enjoy the pictures of this group and their followers. See you next time.