Brazil's Carnival finally reborn in full form after pandemic
>> Brazil's Carnival is back.
Glittery and outrageous costumes are once again being prepared. Samba songs will ring out until dawn at Rio de Janeiro's sold-out parade grounds. Hundreds of raucous, roaming parties will flood the streets. And workingclass communities will be 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. This year, Brazil's
federal government expects 46 million people to join the festivities that officially begin Friday and run through Feb. 22. 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 hotspot.
These cities have already begun letting loose with street parties.
“We've waited for so long, we deserve this catharsis,” Thiago Varella, a 38-year-old engineer wearing a Hawaiian shirt drenched by the rain, said at a bash in Sao Paulo on Feb. 10.
Most tourists are 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, including one bloco that plays Beatles songs with a Carnival rhythm for a crowd of hundreds of thousands. 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 Umaña, 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.
“What's good and beautiful costs a lot; Carnival materials are expensive,” Perlingeiro said in an interview in his office beside the samba schools' warehouses. “It's such an important party ... It's a party of culture, happiness, entertainment, leisure and, primarily, its commercial and social side.”
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 Inácio Lula da Silva is not expected to be among them, his wife Rosângela da Silva has said she will be at the parade.