Planning 2009
Each year the date of the carnival is fixed according to the date of Easter and set forty days before.
Friday February 20: Children Carnaval
Saturday February 21: Blocos in the streets of Rio
From 9pm ,parade of the schools of 2nde division of which one will reach the schools of the special group.
Laurent and Delphine will parade this evening, with their costumes for the school Imperio de Tijuca.
Sunday February 22: Parade of 7 schools from the special group
Monday February 23: Parade of the others 7 schools from the special group (including Salguiero)
Saturday February 28: Parade of the winning schools
How was born the carnaval?
The carnaval was born from the shock of two cultures, Africans and the Portuguese. Portuguese brought their great annual festival: “L'Entrundo” and the blacks added to this festival their music with a very special dancing rhythm.
From 1870 everyone take the habit to go down into the streets every year, dancing on the music and cultural themes which gradually mix between the two cultures.
The first samba appeared in 1917, innovation which will inspire many composers and quickly become a real industry. In 1920 the samba schools are created, with the first competitions starting in 1933.
The carnaval in Rio
Hundreds of samba schools exist in Rio. From the smallest (15 people) to the most prestigious (6000 people). The small schools can be mixed together to form a bloco, then have more possibility and money to create the costumes. If a bloco has a success, it can be part of the group E, and go up to group A.
The special group represents the best schools of Rio. Each name of school corresponds to a place of Rio from where the participants are. The most appreciated is Mangueira (born in 1928, pink color and green) 10 times champion of the carnival, Beija Flor (born in 148, color blue and white) won the carnival in 2008 and Salguiero, several times champion with a total of 6000 participants.
For the Carnaval at the Sambodrome, each school will choose a topic, (Drum for Salguiero this year), the music and the words of the song will be composed, and all the floats and costumes will match this same theme.
What is the Sambodrome?
It is located beside the centre town on Praca Onze. This is an immense avenue, long of approximately 600 m. With immense steps on a side (arquibancadas) and private cabins on other side (camarotes). It was built in the Eighties by Niemeyer. It is the place where the samba schools will parade and will be evaluated.
Click on the picture below to read my article on my voluntary experience at the samba school of Salgueiro:
Decision:
During the parade, each school will be judged for the homogeneity and the harmony of the music (orchestra and song), the costumes, and the floats.
The song singing in chorus by the audiance marks many points. The most important thing and main difficulty is to keep in rhytm together, the schools parade during 60 to 85 mn.
The orchestra will be evaluated, the contrasts of the costumes and the floats as well as the couples of dancers who raise the flags of each school between each section… often the parade can be delayed and finish towards 9-10h in the morning.
Diaporama of pictures taken during one of the final rehearsal at the Sambodrome
Sunday the 25th of January 2009
After travelling several weeks in the North of Brazil we came back to Rio to celebrate the big event of the year: Carnaval!!!!!!!!
Windows shops changed with the colors of the Carnaval! In the streets of Rio, days like nights, everyone is fancydressed: hat with accessories, cat, nurse, dragon, princess, well we saw everything that you could imagine!
Put aside the festivities in the Sambodrome, the festival is everywhere in the street, blocos of tens of hundreds of people parading with their orchestra, their dancers and their costumes in the streets of Rio. It starts in the morning until the next morning, the effervescence of the Carnaval changed Rio into a vibrating city on all sides!
We were lucky this Saturday February the 21st as we paraded in the Sambodrome with stunning fancy dresses for Imperio de Tijuca.
Parading in front of thousands of people in the Sambodrome is a very impressive and unforgettable experience, sharing hundreds of smiles of people that we crossed. The energy, music, samba, floats and costumes in front of us, the floats and costumes behind during 45 mn, just the time to walk this immense avenue especially designed for the Carnaval.
We loved this moment and we were lucky to discover it for the first time with our friend Lucia, an incredible atmosphere, where everyone has amazing fancy dresses, the floats are beautiful and people from all over the world and Brazil came especially for it!
Lastly, Monday February 23 we went to watch the parade of Salgueiro samba school, for which I worked. We arrive on time for Salgueiro but the crowd and the extravagant price of the tickets make us turn back and go to the free stands installed at the entry of Sambodrome! We can finally see the floats from very close and enjoy these magic moments in the middle of hundreds of passionate people. Next to us some fans get very excited and move in all directions as if they were watching a football game. They clapp, high five each other, exchange comments, and send big shouts to their school: `go forward! ', `moves to the right! ', `come on float!! ', `repair this cord! '… while singing the song of Salguiero. A very hot ambiance!
I was very impressed because I finally could see the floats finished with the lights and all the dancers around, the work and the effort of all these craftsmen creating a spectacular result. Also all the people who paraded with these costumes of extraordinary contrasts, and thousands of details. We were filled with great joy when it turned out that Salgueiro won the Carnaval 2009!
The last day of the Carnival, we wandered around the streets to try to see the carnaval 'blocos'. Today I am made up as a clown joker (I'm loving it!), and Delphine has a red dot on the face, the indhu way.
We managed to see the banda of Ipanema, within the gay area, then we walked all along Copacabana. Hundreds and hundreds of people are disguised and are having fun for the festival, but we can not see any samba band playing. There and there small groups play all types of music. Brasilian pop, international music, children songs, we are like in the middle of a music festival… The Carnival is not only a big parade of costumes, it is also a great popular fiesta for everyone!
The carnaval is a big party, where the joy of life is reflected, in the dance (samba), the song, the beauty of the coloured costumes and the rhythms of the “batteria”.
As a volunteer at the samba school of Salguiero and following my researches to find affordable tickets for the Sambodrome, I am convinced that the carnaval today became a huge tourist business enterprise. Tickets for the show are very expensive (around 500 euros & 700 euros for the best seats) with difficulties to find tickets in the popular area. Parading with the costumes for a school of the special group, costs at least 250 euros without going through an agency.
During the week of carnaval, parades on the streets, parties, street orchestras will be performed in all over Rio and this is at that special time that the true carnaval begins.
The locals are making their costumes, the cariocas forget their problems. Sparkling, feathers, jewellery, strasses make the magic of this great festival.