Carnaval is one of the most recognised of Brazilian events
around the world, yet also probably one of the most misunderstood. Everyone is familiar with pictures of samba
dancers wearing next to nothing, with large elaborate feather displays taking
part in a samba procession, but this is a very small part of the story.
This procession is actually a competition between various
samba schools, held around the country, but the most famous being in Rio de
Janeiro and another big competition in São Paulo. The different samba schools have fans as
passionate as any football team and the competition is taken very seriously –
in fact the one in São Paulo nearly always seem to end in fights when the
scores are announced!
I am far from an expert in the competition, but basically,
there is the bateria (rhythm section) which has singers and drummers that play
a catchy, repetitive song for the duration of the parade. The procession is then made up of several
participants, including the flamboyant Rainha de Bateria (Queen of the rhythm
section) that scantily dressed dancer in high heels and feathers, the Baianas
– women dancing in costumes based on the traditional dress of Bahia – and a multitude of dancers in costumes, some of whom are members of the public that pay the school for a
costume and a chance to participate.
A large part of the procession is the huge, elaborately and
creatively designed. The entire
procession and song is based on a certain theme and tells a story through the
dance, the costumes and the design of the floats.
Points are awarded in several categories and scoring is
quite complex. The timing of the
procession must be very precise as many points can be lost if the procession
reaches the finish line too early or too late.
This means that should a float break down, the school will get together
to try to push the float along without losing any time. No matter what school you support, it is
impossible to not feel sympathy when this happens with the potential to ruin a
whole year’s worth of preparation.
Although this is my first year living in Brazil, for the
last few years, I’ve been able to follow Carnaval on Globo Internacional and
it’s difficult to not get sucked in by the catchy music. One of the most memorable parades (to me) was
that of União da Ilha do Govanador in 2012 (see video below)
with the theme of Great Britain and several British characters, including
multiple Queen Elizabeths and Dukes of Edinburgh (not entirely sure how to
pluralise that!) a handful of Sherlock Holmes’, St George along with various
characters representing the British Empire.
The competition is extensively covered on tv, and
performances of the songs regularly appear during advert break in the month
preceding Carnaval along with lyrics so you can learn the lyrics of the school
you support! Absorbing though it all is,
I personally can’t stand to sit through the hours of end of samba (each school
has just over an hour) of the entire carnaval, but it is interesting to do
into.
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| Bonecos de Olinda |
Carnaval in Bahia is characterised by a parade of trio elêtricos,
open floats designed for live musical performances (more on that later). In Olinda, Pernambuco, a parade of giant
“Bonecos de Olinda” (literally dolls of Olinda) takes place in the historic
centre of the city and the celebration includes several musical styles, among
them Frevo – a fast style of music accompanied by acrobatic dances
incorporating small, colourful umbrellas.
For my first carnaval we went to the beach, like many others
that live inland. We went to the island
of São Francisco do Sul, in Santa Catarina and rented a small house with
friends in Ubatuba, one of the beaches along the Atlantic coast. The house was quite basic – consisting of a
kitchen/living room, a bedroom with a double bed and a bunk-bed and a bathroom
– but that’s all you need during carnaval – a bed, a roof and somewhere to have
breakfast, maybe even lunch.
We spent the mornings at a small beach called Capri, hidden
away in a corner of the island and mostly visited by people with houses there
or members of the yacht club. Being
further away from the major tourist centres of the island, the beach was quiet
all day long with several groups – mostly families – scattered along the sand
with plenty space in between. The sea
was shallow and the warm, gentle waves make the beach perfect for people with
young kids or that want to wade out a bit further to where the water is deep
enough to swim – a good few hundred meters, I reckon. From there, the only sounds are the waves,
the birds and, if you dipped your head under water, the soft hum of boat
engines being carried through the water from the port on the other side of the
bay.
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| Capri |
Eventually, it was time to go, back to the house for a quick
shower, then out to the supermarket for supplies. The owners of the house had left us some break,
butter, milk and coffee to get us started, but this would not be enough for the
long weekend, especially with the barbecue beckoning outside.
For anyone planning to go to a supermarket by the beach
during carnaval, my only advice is don’t do it!
If at all possible, stock up before you get there as the supermarket was
a scene of pandemonium. São Francisco do
Sul is a city that covers the island and between its 13 beaches, has a
population of just over 40,000, which swells massively with the influx of
visitors for carnaval. The
infrastructure can barely cope with the sudden increase and while the small
supermarket we visited is sufficient for most of the year, this week it was
woefully inadequate. Poor planning
leaves a bottleneck between the entrance of the supermarket and the beginning
of the first aisle. This aisle is where
the beer is, which I quickly discovered is one of the key products in demand,
with soft drinks taking a close second place.
After capturing our supplies (beer and guaraná) we headed to the other
busy part of the supermarket to pick up some meat for the next day’s
barbecue. Between getting stuck in
bottlenecks, hunting and hunting for sun cream (it turned out it was at every
till, but nowhere else in the shop) and endless queues, we must have spent
about an hour shopping for a weekend’s worth of supplies.
We managed to struggle our way out of the car park and onto
the main road back to our little house, thankfully against the flow of
traffic. Our friends were travelling
down that afternoon but were severely delayed by heavy carnaval traffic,
exacerbated by an accident. By the time
we were ready to go out, it was approaching midnight, but we headed out to
experience my first carnaval.
My wife had grown up spending summers in Capri and
remembered having a good time at the carnaval in Enseada, just up the road from
where we were staying. Even at that time
of night, the traffic was still heavy and all heading towards Enseada, which we
took as a good sign. I had no idea where
I would park, but in the spirit of things, I decided not to worry about it and
cross that bridge when we got there. As
we approached the town, the traffic slowed as people hunted for parking spaces
and people dressed in anything from shorts and t-shirts, through cocktail
dresses (men that is) to a surprising amount of people (again, men) wearing
nappies (for any Americans reading, nappies are diapers) crossed the road
heading towards the seafront. But for
all this, there weren’t many signs of carnaval; no parade of trio elêtricos, no
big crowds and no loud music – my Brazilian companions were baffled. Soon we came upon a train of tricycles all
linked together, covered in bright, colourful lights and – bizarrely – making
slow, winding progress along this insignificant back road that ran parallel to
the seafront. Feeling the party spirit, my
friend wound down the window and shouted in his best gringo accent, “Yeah,
carnaval Brazil! I love Brazil!” to the
cheers of the pedalling revellers on their tricycles.
Soon, we reached the end of the road and were brought around
onto Avendia Atlântica, a one-way road that runs along the seafront back the
way we can just come. It was
surprisingly easy to find a parking space (ok, it was after midnight, but it
was carnaval) and we got out our phone trying to find the carnaval of my wife’s
youth. All maps showed the road ending
where we were, leaving us to conclude that we must have found carnaval. Ok, let’s go then!
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| Enseada and its lackluster carnaval |
My wife remembered that the centre of São Francisco do Sul
was supposed to have a carnaval parade, so we decided to give that a try. From where we were on the North East tip of
the island to the centre, which is on the western side, it was a half hour
drive with a not inconsiderable number of cars going back and forth. We had to stop to allow a freight train
across a level crossing before reaching the centre of São Francisco do Sul,
which appeared to be deserted. As one of
the oldest cities in Brazil, the streets of São Francisco do Sul are cobbled,
narrow and winding, with a very oppressive atmosphere in the middle of the
night. The only signs of life were
occasional groups of shifty characters walking along the streets and a
patrolling police car. That was it, get
me the hell out of the city and back to the house, at least we could drink some
beers and watch carnaval on tv! We were
getting a bit hungry, especially our friends, who had barely eaten since
lunchtime, so we tried to find a bar or snack shop that was open. We found one place that was packed and looked
promising, but the owner told us in no uncertain terms that it was closed. In a last ditch effort, we found a place on
the other side of the road where we could eat and see what carnaval was
supposed to be on the small tv in the corner.
I did genuinely enjoy my first night of carnaval, but I can only
attribute that to the company and the laughs we shared about the carnaval de
cocô (dog-shit carnaval.)
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| Prainha |
There was no parking by the beach, so we parked in a side
street. There were numerous coaches
parked in the streets from all over the South of Brazil, as well as from
Argentina and a steady stream of people were heading to the beach. When we turned the corner, we could see that
we had finally come to the right place.
Avenida Brasilia, the road that ran along the sea front was closed to
traffic people were enjoying carnaval however they liked; on the beach, playing
in the waves, further out at sea, surfers were waiting for the big waves and
all along the street people were talking, singing, dancing and drinking.
There was still the mixture of clothing, between regular
summer clothes and people in fancy dress; before long, it no longer seems
strange to see a group of men wearing nappies!
The atmosphere was very relaxed and just seemed like several parties all
mixed into one enormous party with everyone out to have a good time. Some people arrived in groups and stayed
around a cooler of beer and stayed where they were, others filled the bars and
restaurants along the beach, others went to a club that was holding its own
carnaval and others had joined one of several blocos carnavelescos (or blocos
for short.)
A bloco is an organised group where people pay a single
price to participate and celebrate carnaval as a group. Food, drink and accommodation for the
carnaval is included in this admission price and everyone wears a matching
t-shirt with the name of the bloco. We
knew our friend was in one of these groups, so we walked up the street
examining every bloco for her, having ruled out the phone as useless. Eventually, we found her and her bloco around
a cart with a flag just in front of the trio elêtrico.
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| A bloco following the trio elêtrico |
In cities like Salvador, Bahia, the carnaval is much bigger
and more tightly organised, in Prainha, it was much more informal. In Salvador, we wouldn’t have been able to
stay with a bloco, as they would be in a closed off area; here, they let us
keep our cooler of drinks with their cart and even carried them along when the
trio elêtrico started to move. (By the
time we left, we had a lot of beer left over – our friends were driving back to
Curitiba that night and I had to drive as well – so we donated ours to the
bloco, to the surprise and delight of the group! The leader told me that next year I should
join the bloco, let’s see!)
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| A trio elêtrico in Salvador |
Prainha had only one trio elêtrico, an old converted blue
lorry which gradually made its way from one end of the beach, along Avenida
Brasilia to the other end. The float had
a covered top deck with live musicians, although the music varied between live
covers of popular songs and recorded music.
The sides of the lower deck were given over to massive speakers ensuring
that the music carried along the street and across the beach.
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| Trio elêtrico, Prainha |
People followed the trio elêtrico on its way along the
beach, singing, dancing and drinking each time it stopped. About halfway along, it broke down, but the
party didn’t stop. We were in front of
it at this point and there were mechanics all over the engine and one
underneath, occasionally letting out clouds of smoke until eventually, it was
fixed and the parade continued.
By the end of the evening, I was exhausted! It had been a long day and a long party, and
the weather warm and humid. Even though we were calling it a night, the party showed no sign of stopping and I have no doubt it continued several hours after we left.
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