In my experience, many people write off Carnival as something only for tourists that has lost its popular appeal due to over commercialization and high ticket prices.
I'm here to tell you those people are wrong, and that seeing Carnival in Rio is one thing you should put on your list of things to do in life. Never in my 23 years of existence have I seen anything like it, and never have I experienced so much pure, unmitigated joy.
Us Americans really don't have any holiday like it. All of our holidays are principally based on food, football, or very controlled fanfare, like the Fourth of July. We have Mardi Gras, but it is limited to one American city, and to my knowledge it has become more of a college drinking fest than a popular festival. So it's hard for Americans to comprehend what Carnival is like here.
When we got there, the first samba school had already begun, and the bleachers in our section were entirely full. So we spent the next 6 hours standing up, hanging over the railing of our section. I can't say for the rest of the stadium, but our section seemed to be evenly divided between tourists and Cariocas, which I thought was cool. The tourists were mostly young, hostely types, with a few coke-snorting assholes and two silent, unsmiling Brits who stood gaping (but unsmiling) next to us the whole time.
So, how do I describe it? It's like being an alternate universe, where your best and strangest dreams come alive. The floats and costumes were some of the most amazing things I've ever seen, things you couldn't imagine could be costumes and floats pushed by groups of men with several layers and dozens of people dancing on them.
We were in front of an area where lots of the dancers went afterwards to strip off their costumes, and we convinced one couple, who were literally throwing their costumes away, to toss them up to the crowd. We got the guy's bright orange tunic thing and a huge, ridiculous purple hat. Awesome.
I felt stupid, but every five seconds I kept saying, "That is SO cool. Oh my god, that is so cool."
My two favorite groups were Porto da Pedra and Portela. Porto da Pedra's Japanese theme, celebrating Japanese culture, was absolutely unbelievable. There were floats based on Japanese architecture and teahouses, a naked Japanese baby spinning in a cup, a golden tiger and Buddha, spinning robots around a lady in huge layers of feathers, lots of geishas, a whole wing of costumes with sushi boat hats, and a huge wing of actual Japanese people dressed in white and red.
I haven't seen the 6 groups yet who are performing tonight, but I can safely say that Portela was absolutely the most amazing last night. Their song was catchy (though not as catchy as Mangueira's) and their costumes and floats were phenomenal. Their theme was about saving the environment and about valuing the Earth, complete with people dressed as fish and corn and flowers and tigers and alligators, and an entire squadron of people in blue to represent water. They had ridiculously amazing animal floats representing the different ecosystems, like the polar bear and penguin float, the gorilla and lion float (which, very scarily, caught on fire and firemen had to squirt it with water at the end of the parade), and this incredible float that had people pop out of holes dressed like flowers, with a huge happy baby at the front, and then the people popped back in the holes and the float was bare, and the baby flipped and turned into an emaciated baby, representing global warming.
Salgueiro had some pretty amazing floats, too. They had a pirate ship, complete with some trampolines where performers bounced backwards onto the entire way down the avenue, a model of Lapa, a model of a favela, a steamboat, and a huge "beach" float with an enormous golden lady flanked by real people in teeny bathing suits.
(NOTE: We didn't stay for Viradouro, the controversial samba school that wanted to have a Holocaust float. However, Globo just replayed last night--yes, replayed--and it is too bad they screwed up because their other floats and costumes were totally cool. The first float was a literal mobile ski hill, with guys skiing down it, and they had a really risque "Karma Sutra" float with couples painted in gold doing Karma Sutra positions, and a float with enormous bug-people, and an amazing green float where 100 people popped out as blooming roses. There were some genuinely weird and creepy things though: people dressed up as headless victims of the guillotine (with an actual guillotine hat), an Exorcist float with tons of people hanging upside down, and a huge float made of naked baby dolls with a huge, really life-like bloody baby hanging upside down, crying, in a huge set of doctor's hands. And then they had their protest float, of people with their mouths covered.
It started to pour during Mangueira, and I was totally disappointed with them. Their costumes all looked the same and the floats weren't nearly as impressive as the other schools. They all were very into it, but when we left halfway through their parade (it was already after 4am and pouring rain), I saw lots of the Mangueira dancers leaving, and I saw this one old black man walking alone in his dapper white suit, head bowed, dragging his feet, and I felt really sad for him.
But that was probably the only downer moment of the night. People danced everywhere, not just on the avenue but random people in the stands and in the passageway area below us and all over. Portela had a whole section in their parade of physically and mentally handicapped people, a few of which came back to the stands after and did some crazy samba moves for the crowd. They were just so incredibly happy.
Carnival is a time of happiness and letting go, for the richest and the poorest in Rio. I am of the camp that believes that everyone needs their time in the spotlight to promote more social cohesion, though it seems this multi-million dollar event can't solve Rio's deeply ingrained problems the other 361 days of the year.
Being at the end of the line though, made me feel a little sad. A year's worth of planning, and practicing, and producing, and in 80 minutes it is all over. It's how I used to feel after ballet performances. Performing is such an amazing experience, but it is over really fast.
To make a long story short, the parade was amazing, and everyone should have a chance to see it once in their lifetime.
You can see all the photos in my new album on the right column.
Your photos are unbelievable! I can't begin to imagine what it's like to be in that crowd, with that kind of energy and spectacle!
On the other hand, as J references the spectacle of the Giants and their triumph, I'm going to be in the thick of it tomorrow because my office is across the street from City Hall and celebratory parade...
Posted by: Lenore Glickhouse | February 04, 2008 at 04:38 PM