BRAZIL: Rio de Janeiro's famed Carnival celebrations wrap up with last street carnival and the Gay Gala Ball

Record ID: 277491

  • Title: BRAZIL: Rio de Janeiro's famed Carnival celebrations wrap up with last street carnival and the Gay Gala Ball
  • Date: 25th February 2009
  • Summary: PEOPLE IN COSTUMES BEING PHOTOGRAPHED
  • Embargoed: 12th March 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Brazil
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVA4RNKHHE1WRPY7O6UBO4TLGURI
  • Story Text: Thousands of Brazilians and tourists gathered in Rio de Janeiro's famed Ipanema Beach on Tuesday (February 24) for the last street party known as Ipanema Band.
    Revellers donned costumes and danced through the streets along Ipanema Beach as Carnival celebrations wrapped up before Ash Wednesday.
    For all the millions of dollars and blanket television coverage invested in the grand parades at Rio's Sambadrome, the beating heart of Carnival remains its free-to-enter blocos, where a Samba band and a jury-rigged sound system are enough to sustain a thousands-strong party for hours.
    "Carnival in Rio does not exist without the Ipanema Band," one reveller dressed as Carmen Miranda said.
    "It is something tranquil, it comes from family, there are foreigners, tourists, it's a Carnival where everyone has fun without any problems."
    For others, Carnival is time to cleanse the soul.
    "I am here to clean and separate the bad things from the good things," one reveller, donning a street cleaner costume, said.
    "The bad things have to be left out."
    However, Rio's Carnival celebrations end with one last blowout, the famed Gay Gala.
    Hundreds of tireless revellers flocked to the Gay Gala Ball on Tuesday night whichthe wild pre-Lent Carnival.
    Hundreds of onlookers gathered outside the ball's entrance, now in its 29th year, to check out the men arriving in glittering miniskirts, evening dresses, bead-studded lingerie and feathered headdresses.
    Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent and pre-Easter praying and fasting for world's largest Roman Catholic country.
    On Wednesday, the winner of Carnival's famed parades will be named.
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