What is Carnival like in Rio?Como é o Carnaval do Rio de Janeiro? 2011!!

THE EXPERIENCE OF A LIFE-TIME!!!


The Rio Carnival Parade or Samba Parade is undoubtedly the highlight of the Rio Carnival, a totally unique event in the world. It is something everybody has to experience at least once in life.
The Samba Parade is a highly orchestrated show of vast proportions. You will experience (and probably dance to) such a spectacular show that you certainly have never seen before. The Samba Parade is often referred to as 'The biggest Show on Earth'.

The venue of the Samba Parade, the Sambodromo, can seat around 70,000 people.

Thus you should buy your Samba Parade tickets well in advance not to get disappointed. Do not leave it to the last minute as tickets sell out and prices increase with time.

Seat types
There are two types of seats: grand stand seats and numbered seats,
Grand Stand seats (bleachers or "arquibancadas") offer free seating with no allocated seats. You can get as high and will sit wherever you want and can.

Allocated/numbered seats are either in boxes/suites or there are on numbered chairs.

Boxes are covered and offer VIP seating and services (the suites) or open in front of the sectors.

The front boxes ("frisas") are right on the samba run-way.

Suites offer the only covered seating and are the most comfortable and stylish boxes, offering special services such as free food and drinks the whole night.

The numbered chairs are at the very end of the the samba run-way, at Apotheosis Square. They are placed on steps for better views

Near the drummers' niche:
The drummers of every school stop, perform and play in the drummers’ niche where the atmosphere is the most intense. The front boxes in front of Sector 4 are located just opposite, offering the best acoustics and full view of their performance.


Who is who in the Parade

King of Carnaval (King Momo)
"Momo" is the name of the god of mockery in the Greek mythology, and according to Carnival tradition, King Momo should be jolly and as big as a house. Legend suggests that he was expulsed from the Olympus to come and settle down in Rio, the City of Carnival. The Rio Carnival officially opens with the delivery of the key of the city to King Momo. When King Momo sambas, everything - sequins, feathers and flesh and all people around should also samba with him. He opens all major Carnival events including the Samba Parades.

Queen and Princesses of Carnival
The Queen of Carnival is chosen by contest based on her beauty, self-assurance, sociability, ease of expression, congeniality and samba abilities but all in all she must have the "carnival spirit". The 2nd and the 3rd place candidates in the contest are named the Princesses of Carnival.

Carnival Designer (Carnavalesco)
He is responsible for the artistic work of designing, producing and directing the school's parade. Sometimes they chose and write the schools's theme of the year, too. They design every costume and float, choose and supervise the purchasing of materials, administer the construction and manufacture of floats, costumes and accessories.

Wing (Ala)
They are the building blocks of a school's parade - the school is split into several of them. A group of 20-100 people wearing the same costume and having the same purpose. The costume will illustrate a particular aspect of the school's theme. Every wing has a president who is responsible for the costumes (production and sales) and co-ordination of all the wing´s members' parade.

Vanguard Commission
This is the opening wing of a school. A group of 12-15 dancers with a highly choreographed routine, who parade at the front of the school, "introducing" it to the crowd.

The Flag Bearer and her Escort
She is carrying and presenting the school's flag, as the symbol of the School, while the couple is dancing down the Avenue. He is there to protect her (originally he had a knife to make sure that the other schools are not damaging the flag, making them loose the competition). Their dance is the most elaborate and elegant. The schools have more than one couple of flag bearers but only the front one (in front of the drummer group) is important and gains scores.

Swirling Ladies (Baianas)
Older women dressed in glitzy variations of the traditional costume of Bahia state, with huge skirts having tubes inserted inside so that they lend themselves for some beautiful swirling. Swirling down the Avenue, they represent the soul of the samba schools, their African roots. They are old ladies of the community, who have already been with the same School for many years like the samba dancers. This is an absolute honor and the samba school pays for their costumes. They are much respected and often get a round of applause when passing by.

Percussion Band (Bateria)
This is the beating heart of the School comprising of 250-350 percussionist mainly drummers. It lends life and energy to the whole parade.

Vocalists
There is main male well-known vocalist who is accompanied by many others. They are usually on top of the sound truck right behind the percussionists or march along the samba run-way.

Queen of the Drummers
A beautiful female samba dancer in front of and introducing the Percussionists to the crowd. She is supposed to motivate and inspire the hundreds of male drummers behind her.

Samba Dancers (Passistas)
A small wing of the finest samba dancers of the school - no more than 15-20. It's very hard to dance the samba at Rio´s speed whilst moving forward at nearly walking pace for 700m (1/2 mile) - the samba dancers are a star turn. They are chosen through competition each year and is certainly high honor to take this role.

Stewards of the Flow (Harmonia)
Each float and each wing has a number of dedicated stewards to ensure that the flow is kept up. They will wear the T shirt of their wing or float. There are penalty points if the school takes too long to parade and points are also lost in the Rio Samba Parade if there are any gaps between or inside the wings.

For more: http://www.rio-carnival.net/samba_parade/samba_parade.php