After two years of absence, the return of the Rio carnival


After two years of painful absence due to Covid-19, Rio de Janeiro returned overnight from Friday to Saturday with its carnival, its sequins, its feathers, its joy, and also its political messages.

Eight of the 12 schools to parade on the 700-meter avenue of the sambadrome in the two nights from Friday to Sunday have chosen as their theme this year the fight against racism and the African roots of the samba.

What’s next after this ad

The third samba school to parade in the early hours of Saturday, Salgueiro presented with some 3,000 dancers and percussionists his show in the form of a punch, “Résistance”, inspired by the protest movement “Black Lives Matter” which shook the United States. United.

What’s next after this ad

On allegorical floats as high as multi-storey buildings, dancers swayed to the hectic rhythm of the drums in front of signs: “Freedom comes from black people” or “Justice” and “Inclusion”.

“This year we are talking about the resistance, the struggle of black people,” Claudia Nascimento, a 39-year-old cashier, who marched with Salgueiro, told AFP.

What’s next after this ad

What’s next after this ad

Under the government of Jair Bolsonaro, “racism is more humiliating, because it comes from above,” she says, referring to the far-right president known for his racist outbursts.

“After all this tragedy, we must celebrate life”

The 75,000 spectators and the millions of Brazilians who traditionally stay in front of their televisions all night were deprived of carnival in 2021 when the Covid killed 3,000 people a day in Brazil, compared to 100 today.

The Covid has made Brazil the second most bereaved country in the world behind the United States with more than 660,000 dead. The sambadrome had been converted into a vaccination centre.

The cancellation of the carnival had been experienced as a national drama by the Brazilians, as it is in the DNA of an entire people crazy about samba.

“After all this tragedy, we have to celebrate life,” said a dancer from the first school to parade, Imperatriz, Thelma Fonseca, 43, with a bright smile and a glitter costume.

“We have been waiting for this carnival for two years. Our school is celebrating, we are very happy,” adds this logistics employee.

The 2022 edition nevertheless takes place two months behind schedule, the Omicron variant having given the authorities and organizers cold sweats, who preferred to postpone the giant party.

The party that everyone was waiting for was bereaved by the death on Friday of an 11-year-old girl, who had been crushed two days earlier by a tank at the exit of the sambadrome.

“Without the carnival, Rio would not be Rio,” exulted its mayor, Eduardo Paes, on Wednesday, declaring “the greatest show on Earth” open.

Apart from the jubilation, the carnival brings a windfall to the “Marvelous City”, where it generates 45,000 jobs and 4 billion reais (about 800 million euros) in income.

More than 2 million tourists in 2020

In the last edition, in 2020, Rio received more than 2.1 million tourists. This year, even if there are fewer foreigners, the hotel industry, devastated by the Covid, is delighted with an occupancy rate of 85%.

Eduardo Paes is an avid carnival fan, unlike his predecessor, the evangelical pastor Marcelo Crivella, who abhorred this pagan celebration with its statuesque, half-naked dancers.

Close to these evangelicals who favored his accession to power, President Jair Bolsonaro does not like carnival either. And this one makes him good.

In the bays of spectators, some exhibited large yellow fabrics with the portrait of the gagged president above which one read “Fora!” (“outside!”).

“The carnival is a political and anti-fascist demonstration,” said Nairobi Coelho, 43, an administrator in the oil sector, who marched.

“After two years of isolation (this carnival) has a special taste, that of a victory for science which has developed a vaccine against the virus and of the hope of a change of government in this election year” , she explains, in reference to the October presidential election where Bolsonaro will try to be re-elected.

At the end of the two nights of celebration, the title of champion and the glory that accompanies it will be awarded to one of the 12 samba schools by a jury deciding on nine criteria.



Source link -112