The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is the largest carnival celebration in the world. It takes place every year before Lent and involves elaborate parades by samba schools featuring choreographed dances and costumes. While the main parades occur in the Sambadrome, many locals participate in street festivals across the city, dancing to carnival music. Blocos and bandas are also popular forms of celebration where anyone can join in the dancing and music. The carnival traditions date back to the 18th century and incorporate influences from Africa and other countries.

2. The Carnival in Rio de
Janeiro is a world
famous festival held
before Lent every year
and considered the
biggest carnival in the
world with two million
people for day on the
streets. The first
festivals of Rio date
back to 1723.

3. The typical Rio carnival parade is filled with revelers, floats and adornments from
numerous samba schools which are located in Rio. A samba school is composed of a
collaboration of local neighbours that want to attend carnival together.
These people have choreographed
dances in fancy costumes that usually
tell a short story.
As the parade is taking place in the
Sambadrome and the balls are being
held in the Copacabana Palace and
beach, many carnival participants are
at other locations. Street festivals are
very common during carnival and are
highly populated by the locals.
Elegance and extravagance are usually left behind, but music and dancing are still
extremely common. Anyone is allowed to participate in the street festivals.

4. Bandas and blocos are
very familiar with the
street carnival
especially because it
takes nothing to join in
on the fun except to
jump in. One of the
most well known
bandas of Rio is Banda
de Ipanema. Banda de
Ipanema was first
created in 1965 and is
known as Rio’s most
irreverent street band.
The format of the band was inspired by the Philarmonica Embocadura, a
Carnival street band in the city of Uba, in the neighboring state of Minas
Gerais. Designer Ferdy Carneiro rented a bus in 1959 to take some of his
Carioca friends to spend Carnival in his hometown. The event was headed by
the presidents of the band, dressed in white suits and hats while pretending
to play musical instruments.

5. Incorporated into every aspect of the Rio carnival are dancing and music. The most
famous dance is carnival samba, a Brazilian dance with African influences. The
samba remains a popular dance not only in carnival but in the ghettos outside of the
main cities.

6. Street parades, blocos and bandas take place throughout the city of Rio during
Carnival. There can be more than 300 bandas taking place at any given point in
time. While the biggest street party takes place right outside the Sambadrome, the
largest organized street dance is typically found on Cinelândia Square in Rio’s
Centro. When the Sambadrome was built in 1984, it had the side-effect of taking
street parades from the downtown area to a specific, ticketed performance area.
In 1984 the government
decided to give Rio Carnival
its new home in the
Sambadrome. Today, some
of the most famous events
of Rio Carnival are ticketed
events.
Carnival ticket prices can
vary from US$55 to
US$3000,Tickets can be
bought in advance through
international brokers, or
through local travel agents
in Rio de Janeiro.

8. The traditional
colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green
and gold. Are said to have been chosen
by Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovitch
Romanoff of Russia during a visit to
NewOrleans in
1872. purple indicates justice, green faith
and gold power.