The world s biggest carnival returned in full force since COVID-19, with attendees celebrating both the end of the pandemic and veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ousting incumbent and ultra-conservative Jair Bolsonaro in October s presidential elections.
Rio de Janeiro s carnival, a glittering, sequin-studded festival of the flesh, exploded back to life yesterday with the first famed samba school parades since Covid-19 hit Brazil.
Rio de Janeiro's carnival, a glittering, sequin-studded festival of the flesh, exploded back to life Friday with the first famed samba school parades since Covid-19 started devastating Brazil.
Rio de Janeiro's carnival, a glittering, sequin-studded festival of the flesh, exploded back to life Friday with the first famed samba school parades since Covid-19 started devastating Brazil.
LIFE / CULTURE
Giant dreamers
By AFP Published: May 13, 2021 05:43 PM
Members of the Estacao Primeira de Mangueira samba school perform in the 2020 Rio Carnival Parades on February 23, 2020 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo: VCG
Raquel Poti barely stands five feet (152 centimeters) tall, but the diminutive stilt-walker used to tower over the crowd at Rio de Janeiro s carnival - whose cancelation due to COVID-19 has made her reinvent her art form to keep it alive.
Poti, 37, is one of the legions of Brazilian
pernaltas, or stilt-walkers, who loom like colorful giants over the festivities at Rio s famed carnival, an extravaganza of parades and street parties that draws millions of revelers each year - except in 2021, when the pandemic forced the authorities to cancel it.