Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
parades start at 9pm, with eight Division 1 schools
performing over two nights (Sunday and Monday). Unless
you have a very tough backside, you will find sitting
through a ten-hour show an intolerable test of endurance.
Most people don't turn up until 11pm, by which time the
show is well under way and hotting up considerably.
Tickets Two stands (7 & 9) in the Sambódromo are
reserved for foreign visitors and seats cost over R$180 per
night. Though much more expensive than other areas, the
seats here are more comfortable and have good catering
facilities. Other sections of the Sambódromo cost from
R$59 to R$136 and there are three seating options: the
high stands ( arquibancadas ), lower stands ( geral ) and
ringside seats ( cadeiras de pista ) - the last being the best,
consisting of a table, four chairs and full bar service. Tickets
are available online from the organizers ( W rio-carnival
.net), or at premium prices from travel agents in Rio. Book
well in advance, or try local travel agents who often have
tickets available for a modest commission.
include samba schools (though not the best); Clubes de Frevo,
whose loudspeaker-laden floats blast out the frenetic dance
music typical of the Recife Carnaval; and the Blocos de
Empolgacão, including the Bafo da Onça and Cacique de
Ramos clubs, between which exists a tremendous rivalry.
After the o cial parades, the Division 1 samba schools take
over the Sambódromo, with Division 2 on Avenida Rio Branco
and Division 3 on Avenida 28 de Setembro, near the Maracanã.
There are also rancho bands playing a traditional carioca
carnival music that predates samba.
1
BLOCOS
In whatever bairro you're staying there will probably be a
bloco or banda - a small samba school that doesn't enter an
o cial parade - organized by the local residents; ask about
them in your hotel. These schools offer a hint of what
Carnaval was like before it became regulated and
commercialized. Starting in mid-afternoon, they'll continue
well into the small hours, the popular ones accumulating
thousands of followers as they wend their way through the
neighbourhood. They all have a regular starting point, some
have set routes, others wander freely; but they're easy to
follow - there's always time to have a beer and catch up later.
Recommended blocos Some of the best blocos are: the
Banda da Glória, which sets off from near the Glória metrô ;
the Banda da Ipanema (the first to be formed, in 1965),
which gathers behind Praça General Osório in Ipanema; the
Banda da Vergonha do Posto 6, starting in Rua Francisco Sá
STREET CELEBRATIONS
Rio's street celebrations centre on the evening processions that
fill Avenida Rio Branco ( M Largo do Carioca or M Cinelândia).
Be prepared for the crowds and beware of pickpockets: even
though the revellers are generally high-spirited and good-
hearted, you should keep any cash you take with you in hard-
to-reach places (like your shoes), wear only light clothes and
leave your valuables locked up at the hotel. The processions
THE HISTORY OF CARNAVAL
All Roman Catholic countries have a Carnival (Carnaval in Portuguese) to let their hair down
before the start of Lent - the seven-week fast period leading up to Easter during which parties
and celebrations were traditionally banned. In the Azores, Carnaval was particularly wild, and
this quickly became a feature in Brazil too, for which the Azores were a staging post. In Rio ,
anarchy reigned in the streets for four days and nights, the festivities often so riotous that in
1843 they were o cially banned - but of course the ban was ignored. In the mid-nineteenth
century, members of the social elite held masquerade balls , and processions of carriages
decorated in allegorical themes made their first appearance, beginning the ascendancy of the
procession over the general street melée. Rio's masses, denied admission to the balls, had their
own music - jongo - and they reinforced the tradition of street celebration by organizing in
Pereira bands, named after the Portuguese tambor that provided the basic musical beat. The
organizational structure behind today's samba schools ( escolas da samba ) is partly a legacy
of those bands sponsored by migrant Bahian port workers in the 1870s - theirs was a more
disciplined approach to the Carnaval procession: marching to stringed and wind instruments,
using costumes and appointing people to coordinate different aspects of the parade.
Music written specifically for Carnaval emerged in the early twentieth century, by composers
such as Chiquinho Gonzaga, who wrote the first recorded samba piece in 1917 ( Pelo Telefone ),
and Mauro de Almeida e Donga. In the 1930s, recordings began to spread the music of Rio's
Carnaval, and competition between different samba schools became institutionalized: in 1932,
the Estação Primeira Mangueira school won the first prize for its performance in the Carnaval
parade. The format has remained virtually unchanged since, except for the emergence in the
mid-1960s of the blocos or bandas : street processions by the residents of various bairros ,
who eschew style, discipline and prizes and give themselves up to the most traditional
element of Carnaval - street revelry.
 
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