Rio Carnival

What it is

Rio Carnival is the yearly festival of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, kept in the last days before Lent begins. It is the largest Carnival celebration anywhere, with roughly two million people a day filling the streets. The parades are put on by samba schools, neighbourhood associations that exist all year and share a district or a common background. More than two hundred of them are active in the city, arranged in five divisions or leagues. Each school brings its own dancers, drummers and floats to the runway in a competition watched by crowds in the stands and on television.

Origins and history

Carnival came to Brazil with Portuguese colonisers in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the earliest Carnival in Rio is dated to 1723. Its early street form was the Entrudo, when games and teasing spilled through the city; masks and costumes came later. A masquerade took place in 1840, with polka and waltz as the chief music. In the early 1900s, Afro-Brazilian and Pardo musicians wove different influences into samba and batucada, and Carnival grew into Brazil's largest popular festival. Through the 1920s and 1930s, samba schools formed out of carnival blocks, gaining standing and pushing back against police harassment of Black street celebrations.

Parade and divisions

The parade doubles as a competition. Estácio de Sá, Portela and Estação Primeira de Mangueira were the first samba schools to march in the city, in 1929, and seven schools were active by 1930. From 1984 the event was spread over two dates: lower-level schools parade from Friday evening into Saturday morning, the major ones from Sunday evening into Monday morning. The Special Group, run by LIESA, is the top division, while LIERJ organises the A and B Series, the B Series parading on Fat Tuesday. The A Series champion moves up into the Special Group. Portela has won the most titles, 22.

Music and song

Each school commissions a new samba enredo, a theme song, for its parade. The words and music may honour Afro-Brazilian heritage or look back at events in history, and together with the dancing and the floats they turn the parade into a form of public memory and comment. Samba itself grew out of older rhythms such as maxixe, polka and lundu, and by the 1910s it was popular with both working class and elite listeners. In the 2000s, brass street bands known as blocos de rua multiplied, playing jazz, funk, soul, Afrobeat and electronic styles in open spaces.

Today and change

The parades moved to the Marquês de Sapucaí in 1978, and in 1983 the governor Leonel Brizola asked the architect Oscar Niemeyer to design a permanent stadium for them there. Until then the stands had been put up and taken down each year. The Sambadrome, as it is known, is a long runway with bleacher seating for 72,500 people, and part of the festival is now ticketed, with different kinds of seats. Away from the parade, samba schools keep working through the year, holding rehearsals and music workshops for young people, while the city promotes the event abroad.

How Rio Carnival is kept

Each samba school parades in a set order. The comissão de frente, ten to fifteen people, opens with a choreographed dance that sets the school's mood and tells a short story. Next comes the abre-alas, the school's first float. Then the mestre-sala and porta-bandeira, one to four pairs, lead the dancers. Veterans of the school and the ala das baianas follow, with the bateria, the drum section, at the rear, sometimes joined by brass and guitars. Dozens of schools parade across two nights in competition, judged on their performance.

When and where

Rio Carnival runs from the Friday before Ash Wednesday until noon on Ash Wednesday, five days in all. Because Lent moves with Easter, the dates shift each year, falling in February or later. In 2022 it was postponed for pandemic reasons and held in April. The champions' parade follows on the Saturday after Carnival ends.

Carnival belongs to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the city's samba schools are its heart, each rooted in its own neighbourhood. The main parades are held on the Marquês de Sapucaí, in the Sambadrome built there, while street parties spread through the districts.

What Rio Carnival means

For Catholics and others in Rio, Carnival is the last celebration before Lent, the fasting season that begins on Ash Wednesday. Inside the parades, each school's song, costumes and floats carry collective memory and comment on politics and history, often honouring Afro-Brazilian heritage. For the neighbourhoods, the school is more than a parade group: it is a shared identity, with rehearsals and music workshops that run through the year.

Days Rio Carnival is marked

Questions people ask about Rio Carnival

See also

HalloweenAn annual observance on 31 October marking the eve of All Saints' Day, rooted in Christian tradition and Celtic heritageDiwaliA five-day festival of lights celebrated across India and its diaspora to mark the victory of light over darkness.Christmas EveThe evening before Christmas, marked by church services, family meals, and gift preparations across Christian cultures.PurimA lively Jewish festival of storytelling, shared food, masks and charity

Good reading and sources

• Carnaval in Brazil: Rio and beyondBBC, Article
• Carnaval in Brazil: Rio and beyondBBC, Article

• Rio Carnival on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.