Brazil’s Carnival revelry is ramping up, from the raucous street parties to the glitzy parades.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s Carnival revelry is ramping up, from the raucous street parties to the glitzy parades.
Carnival kicked off Friday afternoon, with Saturday marking the first full day of the pre-Lenten festivities. Stay with The Associated Press throughout the day as our photographers and reporters bring you into the merry madness.
Here’s the latest:
Many of Rio’s street parties feature musicians playing large, heavy instruments. And for those who perform at multiple parties, getting around town can be quite the challenge.
Márcio Meirelles, 54, played his tuba at the Prata Preta party downtown Saturday afternoon. It was his third performance on the day, while dressed as Fred Flintstone.
For some shows, he earns up to 600 reais ($100), Meirelles said.
“Sometimes I play for free too, just to have fun,” he added.
Then he turned and was gone, off to play his fourth show in another part of the city, lugging his tuba on his shoulder.
Gearing up to play their drums Saturday afternoon in Rio de Janeiro were the Sons of Gandhi, a group that has existed for over 70 years, seeking to promote Afro-Brazilian music and culture. During Carnival they perform in the old port area, where many enslaved Africans disembarked during Portuguese colonial rule.
It was inspired by another group of the same name, founded two years earlier by stevedores in northeastern city Salvador. Last year, the city of Rio issued a decree officially recognizing Sons of Gandhi as a cultural asset.
“It brings to the street, the avenue, African traditions that unfortunately are still persecuted and discredited,” said Claudia Vitalino, 50, who has drummed with the group for two decades. “We’re here, we resisted and we’re Afro-Brazilian culture.”
For almost two decades, hundreds of dogs in the upscale Barra da Tijuca region in Rio de Janeiro have wagged their tails to samba music at the Blocao Carnival street party. They did it once again on Saturday, but with a big improvisation due to the city’s very hot weather.
About 300 people brought their pets dressed in costumes, ranging from superheroes to cartoon characters and clowns. And then the dogs socialized under the shadow. The decision to avoid the hot pavement was to prevent paws from getting scorched.
The name Blocao is a mixture of “bloco,” which means Carnival street party, and “cao,” or dog in Portuguese.
“It is great to see this interaction between pets and families. It is a lot of joy and it is good for everyone. It is a different kind of Carnival,” said nurse Priscila dos Santos Silva, 42, who took Sol, her Chihuahua, dressed as a doll to the party.
A roar of joy rose from a sea of sweaty, scantily-dressed revelers as one of Rio de Janeiro’s most traditional street parties, know as Heaven on Earth, kicked off just before 7.30 a.m. local time in the bohemian neighborhood of Santa Teresa.
This year, the group made up of percussionists, wind instruments and stilt performers was paying homage to Rita Lee, a much loved Brazilian singer and songwriter who died in 2023. A puppet of Rita Lee had a red guitar with a sticker which said “without amnesty”, a reference to the charges Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro is facing over allegation of plotting a coup d’état.
“Our repertoire is greatly made of traditional old Carnival songs,” said Pericles Monteiro, the founder of Heaven on Earth. “We also pay tributes to Brazilian music artists, every year there’s a different one. It is a mission. We want to bring some of the paradise to our Earth. We need it badly to get some peace, respect.”
One of Saturday’s popular early-morning street parties is Friends of the Jaguar, on a beach looking across the water at Rio de Janeiro’s Sugarloaf Mountain. Thousands of revelers are here, all decked out in leopard- and jaguar-print clothing.
Marina Caetano, 39, has only missed Friends of the Jaguar once in the past 11 years, because she was hospitalized — and still she dreamed of checking herself out.
“It’s marvelous. The best street party. The energy, the people, the music,” Caetano said. “I have love for this party.”
The party features a band of saxophones, trombones and drums trailed by a truckload of speakers to spread their sound far and wide. And the choreographed dancers, “the jaguarettes,” crawl about and paw playfully like large felines, with elaborate make-up to match.
“It’s a space that allows us to express a lot of artistry,” said dancer Dandara Abreu, 36. “It allows our freedom of expression.”
Sao Paulo’s samba school parades started Friday evening, bringing thousands to the city’s Sambadrome.
The city’s top schools celebrated Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous traditions and honored some of the country’s most beloved musicians, including Cazuza, Toquinho and poet Vinícius de Moraes.
Samba school Academicos do Tatuape presented its parade about social injustice and the fight for equal rights, inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. The group’s theme for the year is a famous quote from the civil rights leader: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Parades of Sao Paulo’s premier parade league finish tonight, and Rio de Janeiro’s top samba schools will start Sunday evening.
— Gabriela Sá Pessoa
Also on Friday afternoon, one of Rio’s most traditional street parties, Carmelitas, took hold on the bohemian hilltop neighborhood of Santa Teresa.
The area is home to the Carmelites Convent, which explains the party’s customary garb: Many of its revelers came dressed as nuns and priests.
Some in the party paid tribute to Pope Francis, who remains hospitalized in Rome with double pneumonia.
Rio de Janeiro’s mayor handed over the key to the city to its Carnival monarch on Friday, opening King Momo’s symbolic five-day reign over the festivities.
“Don’t call me. Call King Momo until Ash Wednesday comes,” Mayor Eduardo Paes, wearing shorts and a Panama hat, told Carnival revelers as drummers and veteran members of local samba schools celebrated and sang traditional songs. “You should come for this guy. He’s going to be in charge of the whole thing.”
Momo’s tenure is symbolic of society being turned upside down during Carnival. His role is inspired by Greek mythology. Momus is the personification of satire, mockery and irreverence.
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