Subscribe now! Get as
The Carnival of Brazil is back.
Resplendent and outrageous costumes were ready again. Samba songs resonated on Rio de Janeiro’s sold-out parade grounds. Hundreds of noisy, traveling festivals flooded the streets and working-class communities were stimulated, emotionally and economically, through renewed rejoicing.
Last year’s Covid-19 pandemic prompted Rio to delay carnival for two months and diluted some of the fun, which locals most commonly attended. Brazil’s federal government expects 46 million more people to sign up for the festivities, which officially began Friday and will continue through Feb. 22. This includes visitors from cities that make Carnival a world-famous party, especially Rio, but also Salvador, Recife and the city of Sao Paulo, which has recently become a hotspot.
These peoples have already begun to let go.
Numerous Brazilian mayors, including that of Rio, marked the beginning of Friday’s celebrations with the symbolic handing over of the keys of their villages to their Carnival Kings. And the first festivals of the carnival weekend have begun, with costumes of revelers ranging from Pope Francis to Satan himself.
“We’ve waited so long, we deserve this catharsis,” Thiago Varella, a 38-year-old engineer dressed in a rain-soaked Hawaiian shirt, said at a party in Sao Paulo.
Most tourists were eager to move on to street parties, known as blocos. Rio has allowed more than 600, and there are more unauthorized blocos. The giant blocos draw millions of people to the streets, adding a bloco that plays Beatles songs to the beat. of carnival in front of a crowd of thousands of other people. These giant blocos were canceled last year.
“We need to see the party, the colors, others and ourselves enjoying the carnival,” said Chilean tourist Sofia Umaña, 28, near Copacabana Beach.
Samba schools, founded in Rio’s most popular neighborhoods, spend millions on hour-long parades with elaborate floats and costumes, said Jorge Perlingeiro, president of Rio’s League of Samba Schools.
“What is elegant and beautiful is expensive; carnival equipment is expensive,” Perlingeiro said in an interview next to samba school warehouses. “It’s such a vital holiday. . . It is a birthday party of culture, joy, entertainment. , playful and, above all, its advertising and social aspect”.
He added that this year’s Carnival will break records at the Sambadrome, where about 100,000 workers and spectators are expected to day in the sold-out hall, as well as 18,000 parades. While President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is not expected to be among them, his wife Rosangela da Silva said he would be at the parade.
The presence of the first lady marks a change in the management of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who has stayed away from the emblematic cultural event of the country.
Nearly 700,000 Brazilians have died in the pandemic, the highest national moment overall in the world, after the United States, and many have blamed Bolsonaro’s response, weakening the re-election bid he ultimately lost. Many other people at this year’s street parties. they are celebrating not only the return of carnival, but also Bolsonaro’s defeat.
This was the case with the Heaven on Earth street party in the bohemian community of Santa Teresa in Rio on February 11. Anilson Costa, a walker, already had a breathtaking view from his elevated position. Covered in brightly colored flowers and pompoms, he poured a watering can classified “LOVE” on other people dancing below him.
“To see this crowd today is a dream, it’s very magical,” Costa said. “This is the post-pandemic Carnival, the Carnival of democracy, the Carnival of rebirth. “
This year stores some of the spirit of the 1919 edition, which took position just after the Spanish flu killed tens of thousands of Brazilians, but was no longer a significant threat. World War I had also just ended, and other people were eager to download, said David Butter, author of an e-book about that year’s celebration.
“There were so many people in downtown Rio for carnival that the total domain ran out of water in a matter of hours,” Butter said.
The cancellation of the carnival in 2021 and its discreet edition last year have broken an industry that has been a source of work for just one year for carpenters, welders, sculptors, electricians, dancers, choreographers and all those who participate in the presentation of the parade to the public. As such, the full return of Carnival is a spice for local economies.
“Yesterday I went to bed at 3 in the morning. Today I will go out earlier because I lost my voice,” said seamstress Luciene Moreira, 60, as she sewed a yellow suit in the warehouse of Salgueiro’s samba school. day, before the next; otherwise, the framework will not support it. But it’s very nice!”
Rio expects about 5 billion reais ($1 billion) in profits from its bars, hotels and restaurants, the president of the city’s tourism agency, Ronnie Costa, told the AP. Hotels in Rio have a capacity of 85, according to the Brazilian Hotel Association. , which expects last-minute deals to reduce that figure to the maximum. Small businesses also benefit.
“Carnival is beautiful, other people buy, thank God all my workers are up to date,” said Jorge Francisco, who sells glitter, bright carnival accessories at his downtown Rio store. “For me it’s an immense joy, everyone smiling and wishing. That’s Carnival. “