Carnival in the Sambadrome, Rio
35C
(95F), sunny and humid.
 |
| Warehouses For Assembling Floats |
We
slept until 9AM, yesterday’s all day tour must have done that to us. But
sleeping that long was good. We did not have to be anyplace special today; our
tour today only started at 8PM…yes, late at night.
It’s
an old tradition here in Rio that the real party starts at night. It’s cooler
then.
During
the day Carol and I, since we were docked, tried to find good WiFi at the dock terminal.
We took a walk over, even though it was very hot. There were warehouses along
the pier and some of those warehouses held the regalia and contraptions for the
parades which happen all throughout Rio over the next few days. Shirtless men, who
seemed to be mostly gay since a few of them were hugging and kissing each
other, were working on the parade floats, which were stored in those warehouses.
 |
| Floats Preparing For the Evening Performance |
Carnival
in Rio is not just one parade in one location. Compare it with a great restaurant,
where everybody eats at tables, each table having delicious food. Rio is like
that, like a restaurant, each neighborhood; each favela has their own parade,
their own grounds where they celebrate.
Rio
was a beehive of activity. Traffic was overwhelming the streets.
We
reached the Terminal but the WiFi was not active. Carnival made people forget
what they were supposed to do, someone must have turned it off and since
everybody was celebrating, they forgot to turn it back on? Or, it never really worked at the Terminal,
but then who cares? It’s Carnival!
 |
| Ready to Celebrate |
Some
vendors were open in the Terminal Hall selling souvenirs. Carol bought a
T-shirt and we bought 4 lei’s, garlanded necklaces. It was my feeble attempt to
dress up for Carnival; this would be our costume for the day. I wanted to share
my garlands with our friends and hang them on the doorknob to their room as a
surprise. Well, the surprise was on me, they must have somehow heard something
and just as I was reaching out to hook the garlands on the knob, the door
opened; to each party’s surprise.
Carnival
in Rio: it brings out the silly, the good, and the weird in people. Most people
anyway.
We
spent the rest of the day mostly resting because we wanted to be awake when we were
at the Sambadrome for the parade at night.
But
then 7.30 PM arrived and we needed to assemble inside the ship’s theater to
prepare for boarding the buses. We had a lot of people going to see the
Sambadrome Parade. The seats allotted to Princess Cruises were entirely sold
out.
We
left the ship at 8.10PM sharp and it was only 5 miles from the ship to the
Sambadrome, but we did not arrive until 9.30PM. Crowds and crowds of people
wanted to see the parade.
 |
| Welcome to Sambadrome |
Rio
has 4 days (nights) of parades at this Sambadrome. Each night has 7 samba
schools performing, each school displaying elaborate floats, dancers and
costumes focused on a particular theme. The Sambadrome is the main center for
Rio’s Carnival, where a competition of the most important samba schools, each
representing a particular neighborhood in Rio, takes place.
The
schools are judged on the interpretation of their theme, originality, samba
expertise, costumes and elaborateness of their floats. The samba school that
wins the competition is the star for the year, similar to winning the Super
Bowl. It is a big thing to win this competition. The first place prize is a
U.S. one-million-dollar check.
No
chump change for sure.
The Sambadrome is a long (700 meters long), purpose-built street in Rio, with long spectator bleachers (11 sections) lining the sides of the street.
 |
| Arch on the Left Is the End of the Parade |
The Sambadrome is a long (700 meters long), purpose-built street in Rio, with long spectator bleachers (11 sections) lining the sides of the street.
The entry to each
section of the spectator venue was fenced and you had to have a ticket to get
in. Well, you needed to buy this ticket almost a year in advance; there were
hardly any ‘seats’ for sale in the good, or even any section. Carol and I knew
about this and we booked this tour with Princess Cruise Line several months
before the cruise. The prices were steep for a one-day entrance fee…$285 dollars
per person, just to get a ‘seat’, plus the bus to the Sambadrome and the profit
for the organizers… it was expensive, yet it was a once in a life-time
experience for me.
We each paid U.S $549.95 to Princess Cruises for
this experience.
 |
| Sitting on Towels in Lieu of Cushions |
Notice
I wrote quotation marks around the word ‘seat’… you get a space on a concrete bench-like
setup without support for your back. It was difficult sitting like that for
hours. Some people received skimpy foam pads to sit on, we did not have these until
much later. Those ‘seats’ were not meant to be comfy, because as we found out,
most people stood up, some danced for hours. People in Rio do not conform to
rules by autocrats. It’s party time, who needs a seat?
 |
| Some Floats Were As High As the Top Tier of Seats |
We
were ‘promised’ help to reach our ‘seats’. Right! Good luck finding those
helpers. We were given almost the highest seats in the top section, which meant
there were lots of stairs to climb, lots of people standing up in front of you
who would block the view unless you also stood.
Yet
the section we were in was great. Our ‘seats’ were immediately opposite the 9
judges who decided who would be the ‘winner’ of these samba schools.
 |
| Eight of the Nine Judges |
Every
time a school strode/danced past the judges (we were on the opposite side of
their luxury box seats), the performers, the groups, the music bands, the dancers,
the King and Queen of each school, did their finest performance. The Judges saw
it from their venue; we saw the best from just across the street. It was a good
section we were in (Section 9), but we were a bit too high up to really feel
like in the middle of it.
 |
| A Chinese Float |
The
best part of each school, the performance that they were ‘judged’ by, happened
right in front of our seats. I am sure there were more details the judges had
to watch, to grade, to consider, but the gist is as I said before, the performance
of the whole school counted, the execution and detail, the dazzle of the show,
the responses of the audience, the message of the theme and maybe even the
response from the politicos who were among the judges.
 |
| Another Part of the Chinese Exhibition |
The
music was loud and never really stopped for the whole night. Luckily Carol
brought ear plugs. Some people danced in the isles, they started when we first
got there and never sat down. They were still dancing when we left hours later.
Amazing
the energy those people had, the stamina to be so absorbed by the music, by all
the festivities, by all the hoopla. If ever I felt my age, it was right then
and there.
What
does it cost for each school to participate?
The average cost per school, per parade is 3 million dollars. I was
shocked when I heard this. 3 million dollars to enter? What costs so much?
 |
| Mangueira School |
Well,
imagine this: The Mangueira School alone had something like 4500 participants
in the parade. Just for one parade, for the duration of about 90 to 120 minutes
when all those 4500 people dance down the street: Samba, Samba, Samba. Divide 3
million by 4500 participants and you get something close to 650 dollars per
person. For all the costumes, practices,
meetings, floats, etc.? It adds up. Yes,
I can see the cost easily being 3 million.
 |
| Top of the Mangueira Float |
The
Mangueira Samba School was about the middle of the parade:
The
music of their bands blared from loudspeakers, all the dancers had very
elaborate costumes, each float, and there are many of those, was created,
decked out, driven, pulled, or pushed. It was a very large School and the
actions were choreographed down to the
smallest detail. Each section of the School, full of individual dancers, knew exactly what to do, how to dance and when to bow, to swirl, to hold the flags and/or their toys. The paraphernalia was glitzy, the décor elaborate, the perceived wealth flaunted. It was ‘make-believe’, it was not being ‘normal’ but being in a fantasy world. And yet, behind it all, behind the show, there was a theme, there was a message to the onlookers, to the crowd. It was a message to the world, to the politicians. And it was exactly that message that made one aware in a ‘festive’ way, that the judges concentrated on in judging the theme.
 |
| Another Mangueira Float |
smallest detail. Each section of the School, full of individual dancers, knew exactly what to do, how to dance and when to bow, to swirl, to hold the flags and/or their toys. The paraphernalia was glitzy, the décor elaborate, the perceived wealth flaunted. It was ‘make-believe’, it was not being ‘normal’ but being in a fantasy world. And yet, behind it all, behind the show, there was a theme, there was a message to the onlookers, to the crowd. It was a message to the world, to the politicians. And it was exactly that message that made one aware in a ‘festive’ way, that the judges concentrated on in judging the theme.
Germany
also has a ‘Carnival’ or as some call it there ‘Fasching’. I learned as a child
while still living in Germany, that it was not just a parade. It was a
political ribbing, an outcry from the common man to their leaders. Cologne and
Frankfurt are the main centers in Germany for this kind of message.
 | |
| The Redeemer With Telephoto Lens From Our Seats |
Nowhere
is the celebration as elaborate as in Rio; Rio has the ultimate glitz when it
comes to throwing a parade.
And
yes, the cost for just one samba school is high.
It’s
a neighborhood thing. Its pride, its: look at us, we have it together. There are
many schools in Rio. Remember, Rio is huge and spread out, and each large hill
is another neighborhood. Each shanty town (favela) has their Samba school. The
best schools perform at the Sambadrome. The participants make, most make, their
own costumes to save money. The floats are put together as a team effort. Samba
schools spend time all year working on a parade. The get together at each
school includes the theme of the next parade to be discussed, the layout
sketched, the music picked and then practiced. The parade is just an
accumulation of what last year was like for the people at each Samba School.
And the message or theme for the parade is a look forward to better one self,
and hopefully get the message across to others to better themselves, too.
 |
| Buddha |
We
watched one school after another… the duration for each school was about, more or less,
90 to 120 minutes of dancing down the 700-meter-long street.
I
don’t know how each school, with so many people participating, reassembled at
the end of the parade or even how each following school assembled and got ready
to move through the Sambadrome. It must have been chaos being in the midst of
it all.
 |
| Buddha's Helpers |
I
am just an observer, not a participant……but it was some show we saw.
After
each school passed, cleaning crews swept the street, preparing it for the next school.
The intermezzo between schools was filled with samba music from loudspeakers.
God forbid there should be a quiet time, no, no; music, music, music and the
dancers in the stands kept dancing. Samba!
We
watched a total of 6 out of the scheduled 7 schools for this night. While many
people left after just 2 or 3 schools, I felt it was too rare an occasion, we needed
to stay. Carol wholeheartedly agreed.
 |
| Sun Is Rising |
But
after 6 schools we had had it. It was 6:00AM when we left the Sambadrome and 6.15AM
when we arrived back at the Port Terminal. Sunrise had started already. We
just ate breakfast and by 7.30AM we were in dreamland.
We
spent close to 9 hours, watching Rio’s Carnival Parade, but we need sleep
now.
See you tomorrow. Ahem… later……it
is tomorrow.
