Government help to renovate some samba schools' quadras

Rio City Hall is planning to invest over 8 million Reals in work to improve and rebuild the quadras of some of Rio's most famous samba schools and blocos.

The money is going to three samba schools, Imperio Serrano, Imperatriz, Uniao da Ilha and also to the venerable bloco Cacique de Ramos. In return, these groups will open their quadras to cultural and leisure facilities for their local communities.

Uniao da Ilha is in particular need. Just last year there was a court action by the neighbours to restrict noise. The quadra is a huge open space, floored in concrete, with high walls and a tin roof. Samba school rehearsals of 100 plus drummers and very loud sound systems usually get going around 11pm - cant start much earlier because of the heat. Uniao da Ilha is now the first school to be landed with a court injunction limiting the hours and days per week of noise emission. The Rio prefetura is granting them 5.5 million reals to  completely rebuild their quadra into something soundproof. There is to be a big leisure area where they are planning children’s activities, plus a medical centre, lecture hall and various educational courses.

The richest samba schools are doing this already, with their own money, or that of their patrons. It's what every samba school aspires to.

Uniao da Ilha and Imperio Serrano are both famous old schools that have suffered from lack of investment for years. Imperatriz had some very successful years a decade ago, but their quadra is one of the smallest of the special group. Cacique de Ramos is one of the oldest blocos in Rio. Their quadra, when I last visited it, consisted of a couple of small houses and a large dirt yard.

I'd love to see some of this government grant spilling down to the smaller samba schools of the lower groups, which recieve very little at all and which make do with very basic conditions indeed.

Yesterday LIESA (the league of samba schools of Rio de Janeiro) announced the order in which the top samba schols of the special group will be parading in Rio carnival 2011.

The school that was promoted up from the grupo do accesso always parades first on Sunday night, the worst spot.  This year this dubious honour falls to Sao Clemente. Uniao da Ilha was already prearranged to be the first to parade on Monday. The other samba school positions were chosen by lottery, at an event held in the Cidade do Samba.

Sunday, March 6th 2011

1 - São Clemente
2 - Imperatriz
3 - Mocidade
4 - Tijuca
5 - Vila Isabel
6 - Mangueira

Monday, March 7th 2011

1 - União da Ilha
2 - Salgueiro
3 - Portela
4 - Grande Rio
5 - Porto da Pedra
6 - Beija-Flor

Official tourist ticket prices for Rio carnival 2011

Riotur (the Rio de Janeiro state tourist office) has announced the prices of tourist tickets for Rio carnival 2011. These are the tickets for sector 9, which is reserved for tourists. However, you need to bear in mind that the prices below are face value prices, and to get them you would have to be in Brazil on the precise day that the tickets are released. In practice this is very unlikely to happen. These tickets are bought by tourist agency and tour organisers, who have to make a living. Expect to pay well above these prices if buying from an agency, whether online or in person in Rio.

Saturday - Grupo de Acesso - Arquibancadas (stands or bleachers) R$30. Frisas (private boxes) will R$800 per seat.

Sunday and Monday - Grupo Especial (the top group) tickets will cost between R$550 for the arquibancadas and R$5,800 for the frisas.

On the following Saturday, in the parade of Champions, tickets will cost R$350 for the arquibancadas and R$3,400 for the frisas.

Fire destroys Viradouro's carnival float

Poor Viradouro. After two decades in the top group of Rio carnival, the samba school was demoted last year. In the special group, samba schools have a barracao in the Cidade do Samba, a purpose built collection of modern large warehouse spaces where the schools can build their carnival floats and make their costumes.  These are the barracoes.

All the other samba schools have to find whatever space they can to house their barracaos. It has to be near to where they are to parade, as the floats are too big and fragile to be transported far once they are almost ready. Before the City of Samba was built, all of the top samba schools had their barracao in the old disused warehouses between the port and the sambodromo. Fires were frequent. The schools of grupo A and B had ever more rickety space in ever more precarious buildings.

When Viradouro was demoted, they lost their shiny new space in the Cidade do Samba, and up to now they haven't found a new one. Although the samba schools build new floats every year, they keep the framework of the old floats - its very expensive to have to start from scratch, with wheels, axles and ironwork. Viradouro has been storing their floats in a corner of someone else's barracao.  But now one of them is completely destroyed through fire.  Fortunately nobody was hurt.

Viradouro was demoted because of their poor showing last year. This was a result of lack of money, bad organisation and internal political problems. The old president has resigned and last week a new one was elected. He has his work cut out!

Unidos da Tijuca - theme for 2011

"This night will lift your soul"

Carnavaleso Paulo Barros of the Rio samba school Unidos da Tijuca  always comes up with obscure enredo titles, but there is some explanation. The theme will look at the fear caused by horror, pense and detective films. It will feature some of the biggest names in Brazilian film production. Tijuca is planning to show the spirit with which Brazilians overcome their fears. They will construct a film in the avenida, and will invite the onlookers to watch it.  "we will show the strength of a people which ..... isn't firghtened to be happy" says Paulo Barros.

The theme has been announced - now it is up to the school's samba song composers to come up with a song that everyone will want to sing. The composers will write their songs, and one of these will be chosen through a competition lasting several months, and culminating this aautumn. Commentators point out that the theme is rather vague and it will be difficult to write a stirring, poetic samba. But I'm sure there are some in the Tijuca ala of composers who will be up to the job.

Beija Flor - theme for Carnaval 2011

Beija Flor's parade in 2010 will be about Roberto Carlos, the singer and composer.

Born in 1941, Roberto Carlos is famous in Brazil and many other countries, and has sold over 120 million records.  Roberto Carlos was one of the prime movers in the 'Jovem Guarda' rock music movement in the 1960s, during which time he rose to fame meteorically on the back of a string of hit records, radio shows and wildly popular TV series. He went on to make 3 films, all popular in Brazil. His songs have been recorded internationally, and he has received a Grammy.  Today he is a national treasure,and practically the whole country tunes in to his annual Christmas Special show on TV.

As a theme this will have enormous resonance for Brazilians and mean nothing much to us poor old Gringos. But then we are there as spectators, and the better the theme is for Brazilians, the better the parade should be for us to spectate! Anyway, this Roberto Carlos theme is proving a great hit in Beija Flor where over 90 composers have already registered in the competition to produce next years samba enredo (themed samba song). Cynics point out that if Roberto Carlos decides to record the winning samba on one of his albums, there will be a lot of royalty money at stake. His records still regularly receive gold discs.

The final choice of song will be the result of a competition held over several weeks, culminating in the autumn.

Samba shoes.

During Rio carnival this year I took a lot of video of shoes. I'm amazed how some young women manage to survive the whole night in the avenida walking on 6 inch stiletto platforms. My daughter runs a fashion blog; I thought she might like to write something about the samba shoe phenomenon (When you've watched carnival live for many years, you can spare some mental energy during the parades for this kind of fine detail)

I got back to England and showed her the footage, and she was interested, but up till now she hasnt done anything with it. So I put some of these clips together into a little video which I posted onto youtube with the title 'samba feet in samba shoes'.

And its gone viral in Turkey! Can anyone explain this? And why is it so popular in Tibet?

It also seems to have attracted a wide following internationally amongst foot fetishists. This was never my intention, really!

You can see it for yourself, here.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC7uPNbhDZ8 

Extreme floods in Rio

Rio has just experienced its heaviest rain on record, and its still raining. There have been some serious lanslides on the steep hills of the morros in Rio and Niteroi, and the latest news is of almost a hundred deaths. The lake of Lagoa overflowed, and as the water receeds, everything is covered in a thick layer of mud and rubbish.

The Mayor of Rio has advised people in areas at risk of mudslides to move out, and as part of the response to this Mangueira has opened up its quadra to displaced families - theres around 90 local families there at the moment.

There is much talk about how the city is unprepared but even the most efficient infrastructure in the world could not have coped with 11 inches of rain in a day. I hope all my friends are OK.

Keeping 300 - odd ritmistas (drummers) together in Rio carnival baterias requires strict discipline. But sometimes there is room for a little high spirits.

I took this video at a technical rehearsal of Imperatriz, in the sambodromo, before carnaval 2010. The bateria is in position for the parade to start, and the puxador has started singing the song. Theres always a run through of the song without the bateria, before the drums start. A bunch of enthusiastic ritmistas dances to the front of the bateria and encircles thier rainha, the regal Luiza Brunet. The Mestre da Bateria decides to let them have their fun before blowing his whistle and ushering them back into position.

67 meter Rio carnival float

Beija Flor fielded a 67 meter long float in their Rio Carnival samba school parade, 2010.

Heres a picture I took of their giant float as it appeared in the carnival parade. Beija Flor is a famously well organised samba school and, through meticulous advance planning and ingenious engineering, they managed to get it round the corners and along the narrow streets without any major incident.  Beija Flor came third overall in the results, not because of any technical problem with their parade, but because their theme was unpopular.

The float was made up of two smaller structures coupled together (like a train) so that they were able to bring it round the corner before assembling the full length.

But in this case, more was less. The overall effect, whilst stupendous, was also cold and impersonal. The parade became something to watch, not something to make you stand up and cheer. Such a shame. The beautiful spirit and energy of the participants ended up buried under the opulence of the costumes and presentation.