Brazil’s glitzy Carnival back in a big way after pandemic
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s Carnival is back.
Glittery and outrageous costumes were prepared again. Samba songs were ringing out till dawn at Rio de Janeiro’s sold-out parade grounds. Hundreds of raucous, roaming parties were flooding the streets. And working-class communities were buoyed, emotionally and economically, by the renewed revelry.
The COVID-19 pandemic last year prompted Rio to delay Carnival by two months, and watered down some of the fun, which was attended mostly by locals. Brazil’s federal government expects 46 million people to join the festivities that officially began Friday and run through Wednesday. That includes visitors to cities that make Carnival a world-famous bash, especially Rio but also Salvador, Recife and metropolitan Sao Paulo, which has recently emerged as a hot spot.
Many Brazilian mayors, including Rio’s, were marking the start of the celebrations Friday by symbolically handing the keys to their cities to their Carnival Kings. And the first street parties of the Carnival weekend kicked off, with revelers’ costumes ranging from Pope Francis to the devil himself.
“We’ve waited for so long, we deserve this catharsis,” Thiago Varella, a 38-yearold engineer wearing a Hawaiian shirt drenched by the rain, said at a bash in Sao Paulo.
Most tourists were eager to go to the street parties, known as blocos. Rio has permitted more than 600 of them, and there are more unsanctioned blocos. The biggest blocos lure millions to the streets, but such major blocos were called off last year.
“We want to see the partying, the colors, the people and ourselves enjoying Carnival,” Chilean tourist Sofia Umana, 28, said near Copacabana beach.
The premier spectacle is at the Sambadrome. Top samba schools, which are based in Rio’s more working-class neighborhoods, spend millions on hourlong parades with elaborate floats and costumes, said Jorge Perlingeiro, president of Rio’s league of samba schools.
He added that this year’s Carnival will smash records at the Sambadrome, where some 100,000 staff and spectators are expected each day in the sold-out venue, plus 18,000 paraders. While President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is not expected to be among them, his wife, Rosangela da Silva, has said she will be at the parade.
The first lady’s attendance signals a shift from the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who kept his distance from the nation’s marquee cultural event.
Nearly 700,000 Brazilians died in the pandemic, the world’s second-highest national total after the U.S., and many blamed Bolsonaro’s response, weakening
the bid for reelection that he ultimately lost. Many at this year’s street parties are celebrating not just the return of Carnival, but also Bolsonaro’s defeat.
That was the case Feb. 11 at the Heaven on Earth street party in Rio’s bohemian Santa Teresa neighborhood. Musicians pounded drums as some revelers climbed fences to watch the scene from above the pulsing throng.
Anilson Costa, a stiltwalker, already had a prime view from his elevated perch. Covered in flowers and brightly colored pompoms, he poured a watering can labeled “LOVE” over those dancing below.
“Seeing this crowd today is a dream, it’s very magical,” said Costa. “This is the post-pandemic Carnival, the Carnival of democracy, the Carnival of rebirth.”
Carnival’s cancellation in 2021 and its lower-key version last year pummeled an industry that is a nearly yearlong source of jobs for carpenters, welders, sculptors, electricians, dancers, choreographers and everyone else involved in bringing parades to the public. As such, Carnival’s full-fledged return is a shot in the arm for local economies.