BRAZIL: Hundreds parade in Rio de Janeiro's streets after announcement of official Carnival opening

Record ID: 449770

  • Title: BRAZIL: Hundreds parade in Rio de Janeiro's streets after announcement of official Carnival opening
  • Date: 13th February 2010
  • Summary: VARIOUS CARMELITAS' MUSICIANS PLAYING SAMBA TUNES VARIOUS OF REVELERS AT PARADE VARIOUS OF GENERAL VIEWS OF STREET PARADE GENERAL VIEW OF SUGAR LOAF HILLS
  • Embargoed: 28th February 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Brazil
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVA3EZAHR5C50BRDICHJ554NPAIN
  • Story Text: Hundreds of revelers took the streets of Rio de Janeiro's historic Santa Teresa district on Friday (February 12) during the parade of Carmelitas street band.
    The city's neighborhood bands known as "blocos" are the lifeblood of the annual Carnival festivities that were officially opened by Rio's mayor earlier on Friday.
    Many revelers dress as nuns in Carmelitas as tradition has it that one of the girls who lived in the neighborhood's convent ran away to join the Carnival bash and never returned.
    "I think the party (Carnival) brings harmony to all people," said reveler Bruna de Oliveira who stuck to tradition and wore a nun costume.
    Some of the hundreds of blocos have histories going back almost a century and command a loyalty from Cariocas, as Rio's residents are known, rivaling that reserved for soccer teams and the Samba schools that parade through the Sambadrome on Sunday and Monday nights.
    The informal blocos have expanded at a dizzying pace in recent years and over 400 bands are expected to parade in the city during the 5-day-long revelry.
    "Street Carnival here is in fact very special, there is no comparison. I am already in love with this place. I am not from here, I came here and now I can't leave," said reveler Diogo Lara.
    The blocos lack the lavish floats, elaborate costumes and almost nude beauty queens of the official parades but they compensate for that with the pure joy of relentless dancing and singing as beer flows freely and flirting abounds.
    Brazil's most popular parades are in Rio de Janeiro, and in the northeastern cities of Salvador and Recife. Carnival will run through Ash Wednesday.
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