Rio Carnival is not just the Sambadrome. 5 million people are expected in the streets of the Brazilian city, who are returning to their neighborhood parades after two years of cancellation due to the health crisis.
Covered in gold sequins from head to toe, the Brazilian Vera Lucia da Silva is ready to fully enjoy the street carnival of Rio de Janeiro, back after three years of waiting due to the Covid. “For us, the Cariocas (residents of Rio), carnival is the best! The people mix, everyone is happy”, said the 58-year-old housekeeper to AFP, frantically waving her ganzá (percussion instrument) during a parade of the “bloco” Céu da Terra (heaven on earth), one of the 400 processions authorized in the city. “Wonderful City”.
The weekend before the official start of the carnival (Friday 17), parades are already taking place in the streets. From early in the morning, the music is loud, the beer flows freely and the crowd wiggles to the rhythm of the samba.
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We also celebrate the return of Lula
The famous carnival, whose festivities are divided between street processions during the day and the grandiose spectacle of samba schools at night, was completely canceled in 2021 due to the pandemic, which killed nearly 700,000 people in Brazil. In 2022, the carnival had been moved to April and the town hall had only authorized the parade of schools at the Sambadrome, a closed enclosure, extending by one year the wait for hundreds of thousands of followers of the great popular festival.
This year, a large number of Brazilians are also celebrating the end of the mandate of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), marked by numerous budget cuts in culture. Brazil has been chaired again since January 1 by left-wing icon Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, back in power after having governed the country from 2002 to 2010. “It’s a rebirth, (…) after a dark period”, says Péricles Monteiro, one of the founders of Céu na Terra, whose theme for this carnival is “the flowers are back”.
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“Carnival is the soul of Brazil”
Their costumes adorned with multicolored flowers, the 200 members of the musical group are followed by thousands of people through the narrow and steep streets of the Santa Teresa district, near the city center.
Some disguises have a political and ironic tone: a couple of teachers parade wearing the yellow jersey of the national football team, which the Bolsonarist militants had appropriated. Except their slogan is not “Brazil above all, God above all”but “the carnival above all, cachaça (a strong alcohol made from sugar cane) for everyone !”. “Carnival is the soul of Brazil. Each people has its celebration par excellence. Ours is Carnival”says one of the two teachers, Caique Torres, 57 years old.
“It’s a manifestation of democracy, a celebration of life. But Brazil is coming back from a period in which political power was against carnival,” recalls Adair Rocha, director of the cultural department of the State University of Rio (Uerj).
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5 million people expected in the streets
During the election campaign, Lula met representatives of samba schools. He could go to the sambadrome parades, which take place next Sunday and Monday, February 19 and 20, for the most prestigious schools, although his attendance has not yet been confirmed. A wind of optimism seems to be blowing this year in the large hangars of the Cité de la samba, where schools have been preparing for months for the carnival, which ends after five days of celebrations on Ash Wednesday.
“We feel that culture is once again highlighted. It will be the carnival of redemption, of hope”, says Tarcisio Zanon, artistic director of Viradouro, champion of the great samba school competition in 2020, the last edition before the pandemic.
The town hall of Rio is expecting some 5 million people for the street carnival this year, enough to inject 1 billion reais (180 million euros) into the local economy alone. The enthusiasm is palpable at Saara, a popular shopping center in the city center where cariocas buy sequins, wigs and all kinds of crazy accessories at low prices. “People want to party after this long wait”says salesman Marcelo Rodrigues.