After two years of painful absence due to Covid-19, Rio de Janeiro returned overnight from Friday to Saturday with its carnival, its glitter, its feathers, its joy and also its political messages.
Eight of the 12 schools that are parading along the 700-meter-long avenue of the Sambadrome in the two nights from Friday to Sunday have chosen the fight against racism and the African roots of samba as their theme this year.
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Salgueiro, the third samba school to hold a parade in the early hours of Saturday morning, featured around 3,000 dancers and percussionists in its hard-hitting show “Résistance,” inspired by the Black Lives Matter protest movement that shook the United States.
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On multi-storey allegorical floats, dancers swayed to the hectic rhythm of the drums in front of signs: “Freedom comes from black people” or “Justice” and “Inclusion”.
“This year we’re talking about the resistance, the black struggle,” Claudia Nascimento, a 39-year-old cashier who marched with Salgueiro, told AFP.
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Under Jair Bolsonaro’s government, “racism is more demeaning because it comes from above,” she said, referring to the far-right president known for his racist outbursts.
“After all this tragedy, we must celebrate life”
The 75,000 spectators and the millions of Brazilians who traditionally sit in front of their TVs all night were denied the 2021 Carnival as the Covid killed 3,000 people a day in Brazil, compared to 100 today.
The Covid has made Brazil the second most grieving country in the world behind the United States, with more than 660,000 dead. The Sambadrome had been converted into a vaccination center.
The cancellation of the carnival was experienced by the Brazilians as a national drama, as it is in the DNA of an entire samba-mad people.
“After all this tragedy, we have to celebrate life,” said a dancer from the first parade school, Imperatriz, Thelma Fonseca, 43, with a beaming smile and a glitter costume.
“We have waited two years for this carnival. Our school is celebrating, which makes us very happy,” adds the logistician.
The 2022 edition is nevertheless taking place two months behind schedule, as the Omicron variant has caused cold sweats to the authorities and organizers, who chose to postpone the giant party.
The party everyone had been waiting for was shattered on Friday by the death of an 11-year-old girl who was crushed by a tank at the exit of the Sambadrome two days earlier.
“Rio wouldn’t be Rio without the carnival,” said Mayor Eduardo Paes happily on Wednesday, declaring “the biggest show in the world” to be open.
Aside from the jubilation, the carnival brings a windfall to the ‘Marvelous City’, where it generates 45,000 jobs and 4 billion reais (about 800 million euros) in revenue.
More than 2 million tourists in 2020
In the last edition in 2020, Rio received more than 2.1 million tourists. Even if there are fewer foreigners this year, the hotel industry, devastated by Covid, is happy with an occupancy rate of 85%.
Eduardo Paes is an avid carnival fan, unlike his predecessor, evangelical pastor Marcelo Crivella, who detested this pagan festival with its statuesque, half-naked dancers.
President Jair Bolsonaro, who is close to those evangelicals who favored his rise to power, also doesn’t like carnivals. And this one makes him good.
In the stands were some large yellow fabrics with the likeness of the President gagged and the words “Fora!” written above them. (“outdoors!”).
“The carnival is a political and anti-fascist demonstration,” said Nairobi Coelho, 43, an oil sector administrator who was demonstrating.
“After two years of isolation, (this carnival) has a special smack of a victory for the science that has developed a vaccine against the virus and the hope of a change of government this election year,” she said, referring to the presidential elections in October which Bolsonaro will try to get re-elected.
At the end of the two nights of celebration, the championship title and the associated fame will be awarded to one of the 12 samba schools by a jury based on nine criteria.