LATIN AMERICA RIO CARNIVAL Destinations Flying Colours
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LATIN AMERICA RIO CARNIVAL DESTINATIONS Flying colours Laura French heads to Brazil to experience ‘the greatest party on Earth’, aka Rio Carnival @laurafrench121 he samba beat thumps, castle are among the creations Treverberating through that snake their way through the stadium as the audience the first 90-minute parade, as bops and bounces along, feet feather-bedecked dancers dangle stamping, feathers waving, out the sides, foot movements so hands clapping. rapid my eyes can’t keep up. It’s hot, humid and deafeningly Afterwards the second school loud, but the atmosphere is begins, then the third, then the electric: a sea of faces filling the fourth, and so it goes on for 90,000-capacity Sambadrome the following seven-plus hours that was built for this very – energy, sparkle and noise purpose. ramping up with each procession I’m here on a carnival – until the festivities finally tail off package with Tucan Travel, at around 6am. At that point the and we’re about to watch Rio’s remaining stragglers go out to most-anticipated event of the enjoy an after-party. Welcome to year: Sunday night’s parades, Rio Carnival. when six of the city’s elite samba schools compete to be crowned w CARNIVAL BALLS champion. I may have been in Rio for only Soon the 700-metre runway three days, but by this stage is a rainbow of colour, split into I’ve already got used to these blocks of gold, green, silver, pink rather extraordinary scenes. The tur O and blue, made up of twirling previous night I’d found myself ri / LI samba dancers in glittering at the Belmond Copacabana L gri costumes and extravagant floats Palace Ball, the most exclusive the size of double-decker buses. carnival event in Brazil, where NDO NDO A N Giant gold dragons, Cinderella- more than a thousand South er Rio Sambadrome like carriages, a huge pink-and- American celebrities, politicians gold Buddha and a turreted and socialites gather to PICTURE: F 60 travelweekly.co.uk 26 April 2018 26 April 2018 travelweekly.co.uk 61 DESTINATIONS RIO CARNIVAL LATIN AMERICA RIGHT: Samba school parade at the Sambadrome FAR RIGHT: Rio Scenarium restaurant BELOW: Belmond Copacabana Palace Ball dance samba and feast until 7am. a little seedy, so warn clients to be Brigitte Bardot, Gerard Butler and prepared (and advise them to leave Paris Hilton are among those who’ve The blocos (street parties) valuables at home), but the energy been on the guest list in previous see brass bands and and positivity is hard to beat, with years, and to say it’s opulent is an revellers donning all-out fancy-dress understatement: picture lobster, king vocal groups blast out costumes that range from feather prawns and macaroons overflowing samba tunes to crowds headdresses to flesh-baring fairies, from huge tables, live bands spilling of up to a million monkeys to men dressed as bunnies – onto outdoor stages and sequinned and a whole lot of drag. floor-length dresses swishing beneath More than 400 blocos take place ceilings draped with deep red fabric. I across the city, with annual highlights felt like I’d stepped into a scene from including Carmelitas, themed around The Great Gatsby. more casual, low-key affair but it’s still nuns and devils, Cordão do Bola Preta, But with prices starting at around happily authentic, with more locals than where everyone dresses in polka dot, £530 per person, it’s not exactly tourists, and tickets cost a mere £12. and Sargento Pimenta, where a samba cheap. Fortunately there are plenty band plays Beatles tunes with a HOW TO of more affordable alternatives, w STREET PARTIES Brazilian twist. My favourite was Banda SELL including an annual masquerade at It’s not just the glitzy balls and parades da Ipanema, which had us bopping our Book a package the Rio Scenarium. Here, live bands that make up carnival, of course. way past the beach among a crowd of so guests have play traditional Brazilian music across Just as central to the event are the 90,000, singing and clapping along to a guide on a three-floor bar decked out with blocos – moving, sense-overloading classic samba songs like there was no hand to provide antiques, and attendees don feathers, street parties where brass bands and tomorrow, sun streaming down on our advice on the masks and glitter while snacking on vocal groups blast out samba tunes to faces, caipirinhas firmly in hand. best blocos traditional Brazilian plates like bolinhos crowds of up to a million, turning the Catching them at the right place and where to de bacalhau (cod fritters) and beef city into one giant festival for a week. and time involves a bit of planning, so find them, plus empanadas (like mini-pasties). It’s a They’re busy, sweaty and at times suggest clients do some research guaranteed accommodation during Rio’s busiest season. A group also makes it a sociable option for solo travellers, and creates even more atmosphere while cheering along at the Sambadrome. 62 travelweekly.co.uk 26 April 2018 DESTINATIONS RIO CARNIVAL LATIN AMERICA first – though wherever they head LEFT: they’ll likely find a party of some kind, Christ the Redeemer with pop-up stages scattered across the city and Lapa’s main square and BELOW: bars bursting day and night. The Selarón Steps w BEYOND THE FESTIVITIES Even during carnival season, Rio isn’t just about the partying, with plenty of sights to see beyond the fiesta. Among the standouts for me was Christ the Redeemer, the 30m-tall statue which towers over the city from the peak of Corcovado hill, a reminder that Brazil is home to the biggest Catholic population in the world. Equally impressive was Sugarloaf Mountain, the soaring rock which juts up into the sky. Cable cars whizz visitors to the top, with 360-degree views of mist-covered mountains rising spectacle that echoed the sheer represented in one way or another in ripples from a bed of green foliage. vivacity (and talent) seen at the here, and from hectic bloco to ASK THE But most memorable was a visit Sambadrome – and an apt image for high-society ball, extravagant parade EXPERT to Lapa’s Selarón Steps, an outdoor the carnival as a whole. to street-side performance, you’ll find ascent covered in brightly coloured These steps are a place where people something to suit anyone who’s up for mosaic tiles, created by Chilean artist from all walks of life gather: locals from letting their hair down for a week of Jorge Selarón as a “tribute to the the favelas, where samba originated all-out, anything-goes escapism. Marcelo Alvez, Brazilian people”. in the early 20th century; musicians Book it: Tucan Travel’s five-night president, Riotur As we climbed its ceramic slope from Santa Teresa, the bohemian Rio Carnival City Experience costs “Six million we were treated to a mini samba neighbourhood nearby; and tourists from £759, including twin-share people fill the performance by three locals playing from across the world, who come to hotel accommodation with breakfast, streets during drums, including a 10-year-old boy witness this unique celebration. orientation walk and dinner, city tour carnival, and this prancing around with the rapidity and That sense of bringing people and sector 11 Sambadrome ticket. year we welcomed precision only a Brazilian could pull together is exactly what Rio Carnival Flights are extra. 1.5 million tourists, off. It was an impromptu, energetic is about. Every part of society is tucantravel.com up from 1.1 million last year, generating around £714 million for the economy. Carnival facts We don’t want this influx of tourism to w The five-day fiesta officially only be in February, begins on the Friday before Ash though. We want Wednesday and finishes on the to keep it going Tuesday – but it actually goes on for year-round, so more than a week. we’re launching w The 2019 Rio Carnival runs from M O more than 70 C . March 1-6. events over the w More than 30,000 people take part year, from sports to in the Sambadrome parades, spread shelter O music festivals and T across four nights. Sunday and O ph beyond. We’ve got / Monday showcase the city’s elite new infrastructure ER ‘Special Group’ schools, while Friday YF thanks to the R and Saturday are the ‘Access Group’ Olympics in 2016 – a NO parades for those a level down. bru new metro line, K; w Carnival is said to have originated C light railway trains, O in Greece around 520BC as a 70,000 new hotel thanksgiving to the gods, and rooms and lots more was later a day of revelry for the events spaces – so shutterst Romans. It was brought to Brazil by it’s a great time for the Portuguese in the 18th century. tourists to come.” PICTURES: 64 travelweekly.co.uk 26 April 2018.