Brazil: São Paulo City Hall already admits not to hold “Carnival in July”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – São Paulo’s street carnival, known as Esquenta Carnaval, scheduled for July 16 and 17, is in danger of not taking place. The mayor Ricardo Nunes said Thursday, 30, that if there is no private sponsorship to finance the event, “the city will not put public money” to sponsor the parades of blocks. A new tender for sponsorship has been opened, for which companies must apply by July 7.

The opening of a new tender was decided because no company was interested in the first tender, published on the last day 4, and where the bids started at R$10 (US$1.8) million.

If no company signs up for the tender once again, the Esquenta Carnival should not take place. Nunes justified the executive’s release to fund the event because the party was held in the off-season.

“If no private sponsorship exists, the City Council will not put public money into the carnival. Since it is an extraordinary event and not ordinary, that is, it is not in the customary rite of actions, City Hall will not put public funds, “said the mayor.

But Nunes was optimistic. Unlike the first tender, the second round was opened with lower bids starting from 6 million dollars. “I think we should have a sponsor because the values have been reduced,” Nunes said.

The announcement that the carnival will not take place results from a meeting between Sao Paulo City Hall, the Municipal Secretariat of Culture, and representatives of the street blocks. The meeting took place on June 4. According to a City Hall survey released on June 7, 294 blocks had registered for the parade.

As in 2021, the street carnival did not traditionally occur at the beginning of the year because of the pandemic. Brazil saw an increase in the number of positive cases and victims of the disease across the country in January and February due to the Ômicron variant.

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The parades of the Access I, Access II, and Special samba schools in the capital were postponed and held in April at the Sambódromo do Anhembi. On this occasion, 17 blocks took to the streets, according to data from the Transportation Department. The funds to finance the party were raised collectively or by the blocks.