In Pictures

Brazil celebrates its return to full-scale Carnival festivities

Brazil’s world-famous celebration resumes in full force after years of delays and cancellations brought on by COVID-19.

A close-up of a bright Carnival mask — Brazil’s Carnival celebrations are expected to be a boon to tourism after the coronavirus dampened the industry [Bruna Prado/AP Photo]

The samba was playing, revellers were dancing and throughout the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, parties and pageantry filled the streets.

Friday marked the official opening of Brazil’s Carnival festivities, which run through February 22, and this year’s events signal a return to the full-fledged celebrations not seen since before the coronavirus pandemic.

Brazil’s government anticipates 46 million people will join in the annual celebration, a burst of exuberance held in the days before Lent, the 40-day period when many Catholics fast and practise acts of austerity.

For this year’s Carnival, crowds are flooding into the streets of Rio de Janeiro and other big cities for music, sightseeing and parades. Rio alone has awarded more than 600 permits for street parties known as “blocos”, with many more unofficial bashes expected to erupt in the days to come.

Millions attend some of the city’s biggest “blocos”, with the local tourism agency estimating an economic boost of about $1bn in revenue for businesses like bars and hotels.

But this year’s festivities come in stark contrast to the more muted Carnivals of previous years, as Brazil suffered under the COVID-19 pandemic. The country has recorded 697,894 deaths from the virus, according to the World Health Organization, with only the United States surpassing that total.

As the government grappled with its response to the health crisis, Brazil was forced to cancel Carnival in 2021 for the first time in a century. And in 2022, Rio and Sao Paulo chose to delay their festivities for two months, as the Omicron variant spurred renewed fears. The result was a more modest version of Carnival, attended mostly by locals.

But as the tourism industry recovers, the economy surrounding Carnival is likewise expected to rebound. Its parades and spectacles can take nearly a year to prepare and employ armies of carpenters, electricians, costume makers and choreographers.

Even Brazil’s first lady Rosângela da Silva – wife of newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – is expected to join the revellers this year.

A stilt-walker plies through a crowded street — Even before Carnival officially starts, the block parties begin. This one, the Heaven on Earth street party in Rio de Janeiro, took place on February 11 [Bruna Prado/AP Photo]

A man in a white suit holds a big, decorative key amid a parade — To officially start the celebrations, some Brazilian mayors hold a ceremony where they hand the ‘keys to the city’ to the Carnival Kings who lead the festivities. Here, Carnival King Momo, Djferson Mendes da Silva, receives the key to Rio de Janeiro [Bruna Prado/AP Photo]

A stilt-walker reaches up to greet an onlooker during the Carmelitas street party on Friday, as the official Carnival celebrations began [Bruna Prado/AP Photo]

Man dressed as green Power Ranger extends his arms above a crowd — At Brazil’s Carnival, costumes can range from the exuberant to the zany to the satirical, with participants dressing as everyone from Pope Francis to the devil. Here, a reveller dons the garb of a superhero for the pre-Carnival Desliga da Justica party on February 4 [Bruna Prado/AP Photo]

A man welds metal in front of a party float — Welders are among the many professions employed to build the complex party floats that drift down the streets of Rio de Janeiro during Carnival [Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo]

Preparation for Carnival can begin nearly a year in advance. Here, a worker from the Paraiso do Tuiuti samba school prepares sequinned ribbons for a float in Rio de Janeiro on February 9 [Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo]

A girl dressed as the fictional heroine Wonder Woman, sits on her relative's shoulders — One of the highlights of Carnival season are the open-air street parties called ‘blocos’ [Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo]

Revellers dressed as nuns in the Rio streets — One street party in Rio de Janeiro, known as the ‘Carmelitas’ party, is named for a local Carmelite convent [Lucas Landau/Reuters]

A reveller adjusts her tall, decorative hat — A reveller adjusts their hat at the Anhembi Sambadrome in Sao Paulo on Friday, as the first official day of Carnival kicks off. Festivities happen across the entire country, with many in big cities [Carla Carniel/Reuters]

People watch from a bridge the rehearsal of the Imperio Serrano and Beija Flor samba schools — This year’s official Carnival festivities are expected to run through February 22 and can last well into the night [Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo]