The Biggest Party in the World

It's billed as the biggest party in the world...

...which is, of course, why i'm here...

While the whole city sambas its way through block street parties in every barrio, the heartbeat of Rio's Carnival is at the sambadrome in the central district....a long thin stadium built specifically for this time of year when the world stops to watch Rio shake its feathered hips

Rio boasts some of the world's best samba schools and each year they compete against eachother in various leagues to win the title. Twelve of the country's top samba schools compete at the sambadrome during Carnival's Sunday and Monday nights. Each with thousands of dancers and a specific theme, the schools take about an hour to samba their way past the crowd, with several breathtaking floats providing the piece de la resistance of each school.  Vocalists and drummers repeat the chosen samba song, which more often than not the crowd seems to know as well as their national anthem, singing each song with the same fervour, waving flags and samba-ing in the stadium.

Figuring that Carnival IS the sambadrome I treated myself to visits on both the Sunday and the Monday nights...becoming very comfortable with the concrete steps that became home for 3 or 4 hours each night (more, if you're more hardcore than me and stay till the end...morning...). Each night I watched 3 diffrent samba schools compete, the first from sector 13 for an overview (in other words - i was so far back i could barely see the dots as they moved along the sambadrome) and, on the monday night, from sector 5, from where I could see the action much more clearly.

Luckily for me I was treated to a much more up close and personal look at some of the costumes as my roommates had paid to be a part of the parade with one of the schools on the monday night and received their costumes a few days beforehand. Dressed as peacocks in a 'charles darwin' themed parade, the girls were provied with everything from the brightest of blue boots to headpieces designed to impress. The costumes are fancy but are made to literally last the hour of the parade with bits and feathers falling off along the way. an experience for the girls though and one i wish I had forked out for. However, i was content being official dresser and photographer...

While the sambadrome is the impressive showpiece of the carnival not every rio resident can afford the hefty ticket prices....so the real parties happen just outside the statium, with the bars overflowing and the streets pounded by 'cariocas' dancing to the beat of their own drums....

For me a combination of the heady music, the blingiest of costumes and the imagination of the choreographers and designers combined to provide a specticle with no comparison....

the biggest party in the world...

till next time...