Rio Carnival

The samba schools

Rio’s carnival is built around its samba schools — more than two hundred of them, divided into leagues. A school is a community of neighbours who parade together, and each follows a set order. First comes the comissão de frente, ten to fifteen performers in elaborate costumes whose choreography introduces the school’s theme; then the first float, the abre-alas; then the mestre-sala and porta-bandeira, master of ceremonies and flag bearer. Behind them march the old guard, the ala das baianas, and at the rear the drum section, the bateria.

Since 1978 the parades have taken place on the Marquês de Sapucaí avenue, where Oscar Niemeyer designed a permanent stadium, the Sambadrome, commissioned in 1983. The Special Group schools compete over two nights, and Portela holds the most championships.

From entrudo to samba

Carnival was brought to Brazil by Portuguese colonists in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as the entrudo, a street festival of games and mockery; masks and costumes came later, and the first masquerade ball in Rio took place in 1840. At the beginning of the twentieth century Afro-Brazilians and people of mixed descent introduced the samba and batucada rhythms now associated with the carnival. In the 1920s and 1930s, when Black revellers were often harassed by the police, carnival groups turned themselves into samba schools to gain legitimacy; Estácio de Sá, Portela and Mangueira first paraded in 1929.