The Archive

Toothless carny

Hmmm, I'm in Brazil. What to do today?

I know, the beach.

Yes, once again I find myself frolicking in the surf with Tanya, Alex and the kids, desperately trying to acquire some kind of tan so that people actually believe I've been somewhere in the last couple of months and not, as many suspect, hiding in the loft the entire time.

Then, after the beach, we received an invitation to go to see a rehearsal for carnival at the Sambadrome??? Unlike the real carnival, this was to be just two of the Samba schools (there are 14 of them on the real days) without costume and floats. So just a load of people dancing right?

Well, yes and no. First off, the arena itself. Housing probably 60,000 people or so, it's like... well imagine a football stadium. Now stretch it out so it's about a kilometer long. Now narrow it so it's a hundred metres wide or so. And now pack it with people.

Yes, it was the rehearsal and the stands were still packed.

Now, to give you an idea of the scale of the thing, one Samba school is probably a couple of thousand people. The band alone was a couple of hundred of people on drums, hammering out a perfectly timed beat.

Each section of dancers wore matching tee shirts and white skirts or trousers, so you still got a fabulous effect of stripes of colour approaching down the route.

And the girls. Well, let's just say certain sections of dancers were obviously being kept away from the beach by their demanding rehearsal schedule. But don't get me wrong, there were people of every size, age and shape giving it their all.

As for the crowd, it was as hyped up as if they were watching the real thing. Everyone was dancing, singing and waving flags.

And drinking. Did I mention the drinking? But not in a football crowd/menacing violence way but a friendly anti-war protest kind of way.

So all in all, it was an amazing experience and I can barely imagine what the real thing must be like if that was just a rehearsal.

Although I might add, they were using real fireworks and glitter cannon in the practice. Perhaps someone should have told them that they only get one go with those things.

Actually, the glitter deserves a special mention. I don't know what they made it out of, or if it was being kept up by hot thermals from the baking concrete, but after it was shot into the air, it would hang there for literally minutes, floating up and up creating the most magical effect.

So we watched and we drank and we danced.

Eventually, we decided to leave. And that's when it became clear exactly how big this thing was. As we go to the front gate, there was a crowd outside clamouring to get in. The flyover outside the stadium was lined with people. The streets around were packed too.

And this was just the rehearsal remember.

What a great night. I may have to come back for Carnival proper next time.

posted by Peter The Great @ 1:02 AM