No, that’s not a typo.

Things I’ve learned about the carnival parade in Rio:

• This is not a street parade; it is hosted in a dedicated 90,000-person stadium
• This is a competition between the different “Samba Schools” – there is promotion and relegation like sports leagues
• Each school parades from one end to the other for over an hour, as each school has from 2,500 to 4,000 members
• This happens over four days from 10:00pm to early in the morning – I guess the climate is cooler then
• Most schools choose a theme for sets of floats, often preceded and followed by marchers that support the theme

What follows is simply a dump of my pictures. Our seats were at street level, only slighted elevated, so most images have crowds in them.

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Note: I did not edit the sound volume in the videos. But please believe me, no matter what volume you are listening at, live it was MUCH louder. Yes, it’s the same song for the entire hour. Oh, you noticed?

I swear I don’t remember filming this. I blame the samba music.

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I got home after 3:00am, and there were still three more of the schools to go. If you excuse me, I’m going back to bed.