Rio is red-hot year-round, but during Carnaval the city downright sizzles. The streets are filled with throngs of revelers (some masked, many half-naked, and most drunk) joining in with the many bandas everywhere (traveling samba bands that gather dancers as they travel through the streets). Most people also look forward to the countless parades that pass through the streets, featuring women wearing feathered headdresses and little else.
Carnaval in Rio has nothing to do with pre-Lenten debauchery, even though the country adopted the festival from the devoutly Catholic Portuguese explorers who colonized the country. Here, Carnaval is a four-day-long dance contest (running this year from March 4th to the 7th) that pits all the escolas de samba (samba clubs) in Brazil against each other. Every escola in the country trains for months in preparation, and with good reason: Carnaval is literally a ninety-six hour dance party (the samba drums never stop). Ground zero for the samba fun is the Sambodramo, a street specially designed for Samba parades, complete with expensive (US$200) box seats from where people can watch all the action. Those who’d rather look with their hips rather than their eyes can head to the Terreirao do Samba (a fringe samba festival area where you can join in with the escolas de samba) or to the many clubs and beachfront parties that bump ‘n’ grind until dawn most nights of Carnaval.
