The Rio carnival delivered a magical spectacle for its first night, the jubilation and magic of the parade to make people forget two years of tragedy due to Covid-19 which bled Brazil.
To make up for lost time, to make up for lost joy, such was the desire of some 20,000 dancers and percussionists from the six samba schools who marched fervently through the sambadrome and of the 75,000 spectators who shouted at each other in the stands as they passed.
“We missed the carnival so much, what energy there will be”, predicted before parading on the night from Friday to Saturday Tita Nunes, a 31-year-old Brazilian, in reference to the cancellation of the festivities in 2021.
“After all this tragedy, we must celebrate life,” said Thelma Fonseca, too, with a bright smile and a glitter costume, dancer from the Imperatriz school.
“We have been waiting for this carnival for two years. We are very happy,” added the 43-year-old employee.
Six samba schools paced the 700 meters of the sambadrome for an hour, in an orgy of feathers, glitter, percussion and wild dancing. They marched with allegorical floats as high as multi-storey buildings, sometimes staggering.
Six others will parade for the second carnival night, until dawn on Sunday.
The title of champion will cover the best samba school with glory.
The cancellation of the carnival last year was experienced as a national tragedy by Brazilians, as it is in the DNA of an entire people crazy about samba.
But a year ago, the Covid killed 3,000 people a day in Brazil, compared to 100 today. The sambadrome had been converted into a vaccination center.
The pandemic has made Brazil the second most bereaved country in the world behind the United States, with more than 660,000 dead.
– “Justice” and “inclusion” –
As usual, the samba schools, mostly from the favelas, addressed political themes in their parades.
A member of the Sao Clemente samba school during the first night of carnival parades at the Marques de Sapucai sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on April 22, 2022.
© AFP – CARL DE SOUZA
Eight of the 12 schools scheduled to perform on the two nights chose to represent anti-racism and the African roots of samba.
Third school to march in the early hours of Saturday, Salgueiro presented with some 3,000 dancers and percussionists his show in the form of a punch, “Resistance”, inspired by the protest movement “Black Lives Matter” which shook the United States.
On sumptuous floats, dancers swayed in front of signs: “Freedom comes from black people” or “Justice” and “Inclusion”.
Members of the Salgueiro samba school during the first night of carnival parades at the Marques de Sapucai sambadrome, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on April 22, 2022.
© AFP – Mauro PIMENTEL
Under the government of Jair Bolsonaro “racism is more humiliating, because it comes from above”, says Claudia Nascimento – who marched with Salgueiro – in reference to the far-right president known for his racist projections.
By choosing the 1919 carnival as its theme, organized after the terrible Spanish flu, the Unidos do Viradouro school metaphorically evoked this 2022 edition of post-Covid rebirth.
The party that everyone was waiting for was bereaved by the death on Friday of an 11-year-old girl, crushed two days earlier by a tank at the exit of the sambadrome.
“Without the carnival, Rio would not be Rio”, exulted its mayor and first fan, Eduardo Paes, on Wednesday, declaring open “the greatest show on Earth”.
Spectators cheer for the Salgueiro samba school during the first night of carnival parades at the Marques de Sapucai sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on April 22, 2022.
© AFP – CARL DE SOUZA
Apart 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 income.
In 2020, Rio had received more than 2.1 million tourists. This year, even if there are fewer foreigners, the hotel industry, devastated by the Covid, is delighted with an occupancy rate of 85%.
– Critics against Bolsonaro –
Close to evangelicals who do not appreciate the sensual debauchery of carnival, President Jair Bolsonaro does not like the Carioca party. And this one makes him feel good.
In the spans, we could see spectators showing off large yellow fabrics with the portrait of the gagged president above which we read “Fora!” (“outside!”).
Members of the Salgueiro samba school take part in the first night of carnival parades at the Marques de Sapucai sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, , on April 22, 2022 in Brazil
© AFP – Mauro PIMENTEL
“The carnival is a political and anti-fascist demonstration,” said Nairobi Coelho, 43, an administrator in the oil sector, who marched.
“After two years of isolation (this carnival) has a special taste, that of a victory for science which has developed a vaccine against the virus and of the hope of a change of government in this election year” , she explains. In the October presidential election, Bolsonaro will try to be re-elected.
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