An Elaborate Carnival Float.
The Samba Parades are the considered the highlight of Rio’s Carnaval. These Samba Parades are spectacular precessions of ornate customs and floats paired with riveting samba dancers, booming samba music, twirling flag bearers, and fireworks. Rio’s fourteen best samba schools parade on the Sunday and Monday night before Ash Wednesday, seven schools each night.
Each Samba school is comprised of talented, very modest living people, many who live in Rio’s notoriously dangerous slums or Favelas. Every year they make difficult sacrifices by pouring a year’s worth of passion, creativity and labor into the hope that their 1 hour and 20 minutes parade will be the most dazzling, making their school the Pride of Rio and Brazil. It’s like high stakes poker; the jackpot is to be Champion for a year.
One of Rio's Favelas.
The Samba Parades goes from 9 pm to 6 am. We went on Sunday night and in true Brazilian fashion it started at 11 pm. This would be like the equivalent of our Super bowl or Thanksgiving Day parade starting 2 hours late, but Brazil you soon discover is like your charming fashionably late friend.
The Samba Parade takes place in the Sambodromo, which is marked by wishbone like arches on every map of Rio. It is located right off the Metro orange line’s Praca Onze stop. It sits in an enchanting neighborhood lined with food vendors and beer stands and where children as young as five can be seen running free in Disney princesses and Super Heroes customs.
Parade programs written in both Portuguese and English were handed out upon entering the Sambodromo. They tell you every thing you need to know about the samba schools, their colors, themes, songs, samba wings, and floats. I found the program extremely helpful and interesting. Pee funnels were also handed out to the ladies… also interesting and helpful.
The Last Samurai Samba Wing