Carnival Storylines

The tumult has temporarily come to an end. The heaving double decker bus with a thunderous sound system has stopped reverberating in front of my apartment. After four days of mayhem, carnival is over for this year, and things are back to normal as far as such an idea has any meaning in this wild country. Carnival in Brasil is like nothing I have ever witnessed. Many people flee the city to a remote shack in the woods to escape the madness, but for devotees, participation  in carnival is akin to a sacred obligation. A year in the making and planning, it is as competitive as football. Premier league schools of samba like Rio’s Mangueira and Sao Paulo’s Gaviões de Fiel, are rooted in local communities, command fierce loyalty and enjoy the same status as iconic football clubs like Flamengo and Palmeiras. The most anarchic and rebellious parties happen in neighbourhood streets in which the distinction between performer and audience has no meaning. The more formal parades take place in sambódromo, specially designed avenues reserved for the desfile das campeãs, the champions parade when the top schools compete for the ultimate crown. This year I managed to survive two. The first was in Santos, the second in São Paulo. There is no evading the connection between organised crime and the sponsorship of samba schools. But in the same way as I have a blind spot when it comes to football’s connection with corruption and capitalist excess, so amnesia sets in as the drums beat, the bodies twirl, and my retinas fracture in a supernova explosion of sound, colour, and light. From eight in the evening till five in the morning the different schools parade down the boulevard determined to capture the eyes of a team of judges who award points for the quality of the drum bateria, choreography, costumes, and floats. Marks are also given for the power of the enredo, the plot or story line that are frequently political and this year dealt with everything from literary history to racial politics and environmental survival. The São Paulo champions  Mocidade Alegre celebrated the work of the modernist writer Mario de Andrade, whilst the runners up, Dragões de Real, dealt with the country’s historic links with Africa. The shot above is of the Mancha Verde, that sang and danced a verdant hymn to all things  ecological, the soil, the earth, and the fields. As dawn beckoned and the last float disappeared, huge cheers erupted from the stands for the bin men who weaved and swivelled their way down the avenue, broom and dust bag in hand.