After the corona-related cancellation last year and the postponement due to the pandemic in February, the city’s best samba schools once again paraded through the sambodrome at the world-famous Rio de Janeiro carnival. “It’s a wonderful feeling to be back,” enthused João Paulo Damasio from the “Mangueira”, one of the most popular samba schools in Rio, on Friday evening (local time). “More special than other years, the double, triple emotion.”
The first carnival in Rio de Janeiro for two years
The carnival metropolis had suffered greatly from the lack of the biggest party in the world. The residents of the city and the members of samba schools are happy that after two years there are parades again and Rio is dancing samba again. “I really missed being with people, having fun. Brazilians need this human warmth,” Damasio told the German Press Agency.
The carnival is also an important economic factor for the “Cidade Maravilhosa”, the wonderful city, as its residents call it. The spectacle generates a turnover of around 794 million euros. According to official figures, at least 45,000 jobs depend on the celebrations. For the carnival weekend, the hotels in the metropolis are expecting 85 percent occupancy this year.
The first six participants in the special group started on Friday evening with the “Imperatriz Leopoldinense”. She paid tribute to director Arlindo Rodrigues, who led the Imperatriz to their first of eight victories at the 1980 Samba Schools Championship. The “Mangueira”, who won the competition of samba schools at the last carnival in 2020 with a reinterpretation of the life of Jesus, this time chose the history of their own school as the theme of their parade. The performances of the other six samba schools in the first division are scheduled for Saturday evening.
Tens of thousands from the stands and millions in front of television screens in Brazil and around the world watched the parades in the Sambodrome. Mayor Eduardo Paes had announced the largest carnival festival in history. But a carnival of surprises was expected. The pandemic had also hit the financially strongest samba schools. The cards were reshuffled.
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In Brazil, the healthcare system collapsed in March and April last year at the height of the corona pandemic. According to the statistics portal “Our World in Data”, South America is now the vaccination pioneer and the region with the highest percentage of vaccinated people. “I thought I was going to die in the pandemic and decided to do a lot of things I haven’t done before,” Ana Paula Varca told the DPA why she’s taking part in one of the moves. “It’s different in the streets during carnival, everyone is dressed up. Such joy. Terrible without carnival.” According to Varca, Rio has not yet fully recovered: “Even this carnival is not the one we know.”