Rio de Janeiro Carnival

What:  The biggest, bright­est and most famous car­ni­val in the world, the 5 day icon­ic Rio de Janeiro Car­ni­val cel­e­brates every­thing sam­ba, with the extrav­a­gant fes­ti­val see­ing over 10 mil­lion peo­ple con­verge on Rio to par­tic­i­pate, cel­e­brate and par­ty in a vari­ety of cos­tume balls, street par­ties, floats, and the world-famous car­ni­val parades.

A par­ty which now defines the glob­al image of Brazil world­wide, the rhyth­mic beat­ing of drums which accom­pa­ny the dai­ly street parades and par­ties build up in cli­max to not just the evening exclu­sive car­ni­val balls but the main event of the Car­ni­val – the Sam­ba Parade, in which in the icon­ic Sam­badrome sta­di­um the five main sam­ba schools, who’ll have been prac­tic­ing their rou­tines for months on end, parade the best of sam­ba in front of the watch­ing judges and audi­ence – before the car­ni­val is offi­cial­ly closed with a fire­work dis­play, fur­ther street parades and of course an all night street par­ty.

When: The Car­ni­val offi­cial­ly begins on the Fri­day pre­ced­ing Lent and lasts for six days end­ing on Ash Wednes­day, with non-affil­i­at­ed car­ni­val par­ties begin­ning in the days pri­or. While there is no set date on which the fes­ti­val begins owing to the catholic cal­en­dar – you can expect the car­ni­val to begin in mid-late Feb­ru­ary and for street parades to take place in the after­noon of the Fri­day, Sat­ur­day, Sun­day and Mon­day.

Where: The Car­ni­val takes place in Rio de Janeiro – where the city will prac­ti­cal­ly shut down for the and par­ties will be held on most streets – mak­ing it extreme­ly hard to miss.

The more pres­ti­gious icon­ic tick­et­ed events take place in the Sam­badrome – includ­ing the finale car­ni­val parade, for those want­i­ng to head to the heart of the action in the streets for both parades and par­ties the best place to start is on the Aveni­da Rio Bran­co in down­town Rio – and from there fol­low the beat, noise and crowd as the car­ni­val sweeps you up.

Dura­tion: While the car­ni­val offi­cial­ly begins on the Fri­day evening and lasts through to the Wednes­day, there are dif­fer­ing times for when the street par­ties and parades take place, so your best bet is to turn up to the Aveni­da Rio Bran­co in mid-late after­noon to wit­ness the parades and stay in down­town Rio as dusk falls and the street par­ties kick up a gear.

For the Sam­ba Parade it’s advised to be in seats an hour or so before with the parade nor­mal­ly stat­ing at dusk – and with each school hav­ing an 80 minute slot to per­form you can expect the entire sam­ba parade to last for at least a full 5 hours – with an offi­cial full pro­gramme released of the fes­ti­vals tim­ings in the two weeks before.

Tick­ets:  The street parades and par­ties are of course free – but for the tick­et­ed more icon­ic events  prices range from $10 to up to $5,000 depend­ing on the parade or ball you wish to attend.

For the famous Sam­badrome Parade tick­ets usu­al­ly start from US$100. Tick­ets can be pur­chased from mul­ti­ple out­lets both online and in Rio – but avoid the var­i­ous touts that pop up as the car­ni­val draws clos­er.

For those who want to enter into the full swing of the car­ni­val, it is pos­si­ble to take part in the street parades, to do this you have to buy an offi­cial cos­tume of the car­ni­val for one of the five sam­ba schools in advance (see the link in more infor­ma­tion) and then make sure you are at the start­ing point for the respec­tive school before their pro­ces­sion begins.

Need to Know:  Despite the empha­sis on hav­ing fun, it is rec­om­mend­ed to take safe­ty pre­cau­tions when attend­ing the car­ni­val includ­ing tak­ing noth­ing of val­ue with you to the par­ties and being pre­pared for crowds and to avoid veer­ing too far off the main streets of the car­ni­val and the down­town area.

For cloth­ing for those watch­ing the parades, it’s also advised to keep it as casu­al as pos­si­ble – t‑shirt, shorts and flip-flops to both blend in to the car­ni­val atmos­phere and to pro­tect your­self from Rio’s extreme heat!

More Infor­ma­tion: For more infor­ma­tion on the Rio Car­ni­val, and to pur­chase tick­ets, cos­tumes and to see the full fes­ti­val sched­ule vis­it the offi­cial site of the car­ni­val at [https://www.riocarnaval.org]