We were initially nervous, wondering how easy it would be to get there, how crowded, how messy it would be to access our seating area. Imagine We rapidly ailed a cab from Copa (maybe our very minimal attire helped), we got to the Sambodromo area without any problems, traffic jam or incident, and were dropped off right at the gate of the stadium. No hassle. No crowd. No mess... It was easy.
As a friend noticed, it was a very well-oiled machine.
We arrived around 9h20, but there it was already started - they were on time!!! We found our little box easily. We had initially discussed a long time about what ticket to buy, and we agreed that for a few more reais, it was maybe worth it to get "frisa" tickets, were we have open air marked seats, in groups of 6, low, near the whole parade, along the samba runaway. As opposed to tickets in the grandstands, where it is first there first served. We could not really imagine how crowded it would be or how difficult for one to hold a seat if in the bathroom. So we dished out the reais and secured ourselves the best seats we could (of course there were the camarotes, those private boxes just above us, but simply out of our budget). And of course those in the VIP area, right next to us, whom were given free flow of champagne and beer. But I am sure they paid for it upfront, and we literally shared the same view. (here for more technical explanations about how it works in the stadium). Except that watching them, after a few hours of free-flow-boozing, was a great show too.
So when we arrived, the first (of six) samba school was already parading and we felt a hugs wave of happiness and craziness fill us right away. I mean, it is a huge amount of people. Parading. And cheering. With an amazingly happy music. It is a exuberant défilé.
And the Sambodromo is not a regular stadium. Surprise surprise, it is another of Neimeyer's project. In fact it is a very long track (formerly a street) with two very high stands of seats on either way, filled all the way up with a cheering crowd, and illuminated with very strong flood lights. The stretch out length of this outdoor space makes it interestingly odd - it is impossible to meet someone who stands opposite to you, unless you are ready to go out again in the streets of Rio, and walk all around the stadium itself. We were never able to meet our friend E! And it would take 30 minutes, from our seat, for the first dancer of each school to reach us, counting from the moment they left the extremity of the stadium.
The show is in fact a number of samba schools who parade in turns. Each school is composed of a huge number of people, dressed up in groups of hundreds (yes, you are reading well), with variations on a theme. Within each school, you have a drum band and signers, signing in loop their song, usually very catchy. I found myself looking for the lyrics and singing along with the whole stadium. It was fantastic. Each school also has a number of floats, more incredible one from another. The school I preferred, Mangeira, ended up being disqualified because one of their float, with a little floating butterfly, could not manage its way under an arch at the end of the runway. It was a dramatic disqualification, their song and their people were so amazingly fluffy, colorful and joyous!
Indeed there are quite strict rules for each school to follow, a number of people must be in the bateria (band), the various groups of dancers must all complete the entire length of the sambodromo within the required time (more or less 90 minutes) - and while it appears to be plenty of time for a whole school to walk a decent length of 700 m. With several hundreds of people, a few extra large floats and several people playing music, I have not seen one person walking slowly. Rather at times, the dancers looked more hurried (as we were more towards the end) to make sure to complete the walk on time.
Between each school there was a pause of a few minutes, allowing the floats and dancers to line up and prepare themselves. Adds on billboards would be changed before the entry of each school to show their sponsors, with a crew quickly pealing away one add replacing it with the new school's sponsor.
We ended up leaving at 5 AM to go back to the airport to catch our 7AM flight, while the show was still going strong. We missed completely the last samba school - it was only started to walk when we left. I could not have imagined that! We were sure when we booked our flights that all would be fine, that we would have time for everything!
Our walk out of the stadium, while the music was still loud and the crowd cheering, gave it a most eery feeling. We past groups of people sitting on the sidewalk on plastic chairs, in front of large TV, watching the same carnival we did a minute earlier. We saw groups of people celebrating in the middle of some small alleys on the side. We passed a number of floats, dark and unlit, parked along the street after a completed journey, with their drivers lying on the asphalt under them, exhausted by such an intense procession.
And we reach a row of cab, waiting for the hundreds of clients who would follow us an hour or half later. The hardest was to stay awake until we were boarded.
What an amazing night!
A little glance at the crowd.
Here is a collection of images, taken by my friend Fiona Murphy.
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