To make up for lost time, to make up for lost joy, that was the desire of the approximately 20,000 dancers and percussionists from the six samba schools who fervently marched into the sambadrome and the 75,000 spectators shouting at each other at the stands while they pass.

We missed the carnival so much, what energy there will bepredicted before marching on Friday night through Saturday by Tita Nunes, a 31-year-old Brazilian, in reference to the cancellation of the festivities in 2021.

After all this tragedy, we should celebrate lifealso said Thelma Fonseca, dazzling smile and sequin costume, dancer from Imperatriz school.

” We have been waiting for this carnival for two years. We had so much fun. “

Six samba schools rode 700 meters of the sambadrome in an hour, to a feast of feathers, glitter, percussion and wild dancing. They marched using allegorical floats as tall as multi-storey buildings, sometimes staggering.

Six others will park for the second night of the carnival, until early Sunday morning. The title of champion will occupy the best samba school with glory.

The cancellation of the carnival last year was experienced as a national tragedy by Brazilians, as it was in the DNA of an entire people who were mad at samba.

But a year ago, COVID killed 3,000 people a day in Brazil, compared to 100 today. The sambadrome was turned into a vaccination center.

Because of the pandemic, Brazil became the second poorest country in the world behind the United States, with more than 660,000 dead.

Political messages

As usual, samba schools, mostly from favelas, responded to political themes in their parades.

Eight of the 12 schools scheduled to perform on the two nights were chosen to represent anti-racism and the African origins of samba.

Third school parade in the early hours of Saturday, Salgueiro presented his performance to about 3,000 dancers and percussionists in the form of a punch, Resistanceinspired by the protest movement Black Lives are important which shook the United States.

On luxurious floats, dancers swayed in front of signs: Freedom comes from black people where Justice at Integration.

Under the government of Jair Bolsonaro, racism is more embarrassing, because it comes from abovesaid Claudia Nascimento, who parked with Salgueiro, in reference to the far -right president known for his racist protrusions.

By choosing the theme of the 1919 carnival, organized after the dreadful Spanish flu, the school of Unidos do Viradouro was metaphorically inspired by its 2022 edition of the rebirth after COVID.

The party everyone has been waiting for was orphaned on Friday by the death on Friday of an 11-year-old girl, two days ago by being crushed by a tank at the exit of the sambadrome.

The Best Show on Earth

Without the carnival, Rio would not be Riocelebrated on Wednesday the mayor and its first fan, Eduardo Paes, who declared tomorrow the greatest show in the world.

Aside from rejoicing, the carnival brings manna to wonderful citywhere it generates 45,000 jobs and 4 billion reais (over 1 billion Canadian dollars) in revenue.

In 2020, Rio received more than 2.1 million tourists. This year, even with fewer foreigners, the hotel industry, plagued by COVID, is pleased with an occupancy rate of 85%.

Close to evangelicals who don’t appreciate the sensual debauchery of the carnival, President Jair Bolsonaro doesn’t like the Carioca party. And this one does it well.

In the spans, we see viewers displaying large yellow cloths with a picture of the muzzled president above we read. For! (Outside!)

The carnival was a political and anti-fascist demonstrationsaid Nairobi Coelho, 43, an administrator in the oil sector, who marched.

After two years of separation [ce carnaval] on a special taste, the success for science that has developed a vaccine against the virus and the prospect of government change this election yearhe explained.

In the October presidential election, Bolsonaro will try to be re -elected.