Brazil’s Carnival is back. Glittery and outrageous costumes were prepared again. Samba songs were ringing out ’til dawn at Rio de Janeiro’s sold-out parade grounds. Hundreds of raucous, roaming parties were flooding the streets. And working-class communities were buoyed, emotionally and economically, by the renewed revelry. Revelers participate in the "Gigantes da Lira" street block party in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023. Merrymakers are taking to the streets for the open-air block parties, leading up to Carnival's official Feb. 17th opening. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) The COVID-19 pandemic last year prompted Rio to delay Carnival by two months, and watered down some of the fun, which was attended mostly by locals. Brazil’s federal government expects 46 million p...
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Rio de Janeiro's famously colorful Carnival celebration will return in full force this month and is expected to generate nearly $1 billion in business, an all-time high, following the pandemic-related restrictions of years past. The streets of Brazil's second largest city will again play host to the free and wildly hedonistic parties, known as blocos, while the traditional samba schools will parade through the city's Marques de Sapucai Sambadrome. With the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic seemingly behind, authorities expect the annual celebration to break records in the tourism and service sectors, offsetting some of the losses of the prior years. "We believe the economy will generate five billion reais ($971.55 million) during Carnival alone, a record," the president of the R...
Read MoreAs Rio de Janeiro's world-famous carnival holiday rolls around this year without official events due to Brazil's ongoing Omicron coronavirus wave, a slew of private parties are ensuring glitter-dusted revelers will have plenty of ways to celebrate. Rio's carnival was canceled in 2021 due to the pandemic. The public holiday will this year not coincide with the colorful samba school parade, held in the "sambodromo," or Sambadrome, which has been postponed to April. The city's free and wildly hedonistic street parties, known as blocos, have been scrapped. "Bate-bola" (slam the ball) revellers perform during the traditional carnival festivity in a suburb in Rio de Janeiro despite Carnival celebrations being postponed to April due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Rio de...
Read MoreRio de Janeiro has canceled street parades and parties during its world-famous Carnival for a second year due to an increase in COVID-19 cases and the threat from the arrival of the Omicron coronavirus variant, the city's mayor said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: A member of Beija-Flor samba school performs on a float during the second night of the 2020 Carnival parade at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil February 25, 2020. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes However, the spectacular parade by Rio's samba schools, which the public watches from the stands of the city's Marques de Sapucai Sambadrome, will go ahead, unlike last year, with health precautions to prevent spreading the virus, he said. Rio mayor Eduardo Paes announced after a meeting with health authorities that the city would call of...
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