Rio de Janeiro’s samba school carnival ended on Monday after two nights of exultant parades filled with creativity, splendor, and the joy of the full return of the festivities after the pandemic.
Guided by the frenetic rhythm of the samba in front of more than 70,000 spectators, six groups crowned the shows at the Sambadrome in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
And they did not skimp on daring: on the second day of parades they exhibited Amazonian animals and mythological characters on a giant scale, a light show with drones in the sky, and even a float with fountains gushing wine among dozens of polyamorous couples from ancient Rome.
“It’s been the best experience of my life,” English physiotherapist Bethany Robson, 32, who traveled from Melbourne, Australia, where she lives, to dance at the Sambadrome, told AFP.
This year, Brazilians are celebrating their favorite festival with special enthusiasm after the covid-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2021 edition and restricted the 2022 edition, held exceptionally in April.
“Carnival is about resilience after everything Brazil has been through. It’s amazing to be part of it,” says Robson, who wears a huge hat with a basket laden with mangoes.
Many carnival lovers are also celebrating the end of the term of ultra-right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who cut funds for culture and disparaged this popular festival.
His successor, leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has promised to valorize the country’s artistic class, starting with the restitution of the Ministry of Culture, which had been reduced to a lower-ranking secretariat.
“THE CULTURE OF AN ENTIRE PEOPLE”
“Carnival represents the culture of an entire people, and in the last time, the freedom of expression of our culture was repressed,” said costumer Carla Andrea Barbosa, shortly before going out to the parade.
In total, 12 “escolas” performed between Sunday and Monday, each with several thousand members, including dozens of tourists who pay several hundred dollars to be part of the carnival delirium.
The groups have between 60 and 70 minutes to seduce the jury and score points in categories such as parade theme, lyrics, percussion, costumes, floats, and general staging, in a contest whose winner will be known this Wednesday.
One of the night’s highlights was Portela, the oldest active samba school in Rio, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a parade about its history.
The popular group wowed the audience with period costumes from the 1920s, a drone show that wrote “Portela 100 years” in the sky, and imposing floats in the shape of an eagle, the symbol of the “escola”.
Celebrating the world’s religious and popular festivals throughout history, Vila Isabel attracted attention with an imposing articulated sculpture of the knight and Catholic saint St. George, with futuristic aesthetics and whose dragon released the smoke from its mouth.
And Beija-Flor claimed blacks, women, and indigenous people as the “true protagonists” of Brazilian independence.
The first night of parades had already been a bath of glitter, feathers, and tributes to samba bastions such as Zeca Pagodinho and Arlindo Cruz, the state of Bahia, and the African roots that influenced Brazil’s carnival.
Rio’s mayor’s office estimates that the carnival will attract a total of five million people to the city, including the street carnival, which returned to full celebration in the city’s neighborhoods for the first time in three years.
In economic terms, this will amount to R$4.5 billion (US$880 million), with hotel occupancy expected to be over 95%.
In the state of São Paulo (southeast), the festival was overshadowed by tragedy: at least 40 people died over the weekend, and dozens were still missing after heavy rains on the northern coast, which welcomes thousands of visitors during this festive period.
With information from AFP