Complete Guide to Rio Carnival: Best Blocos & Sambadrome Parades

Brazil’s Carnaval is one of the world’s greatest celebrations, and nowhere is the party bigger than in Rio, where several million people take to the streets each year to let loose before Lent, the Christian period of abstinence that runs for forty days from Ash Wednesday to the Thursday before Easter. With rich traditions of music, dance, and spirituality, Carnaval is the single most important cultural event in Brazil and is beloved by locals and tourists alike.

The days leading up to Ash Wednesday are an immense celebration, with around-the-clock revelry all over the city. From the most famous blocos (street parties) to the awe-inspiring parades in the Sambadrome, this guide will help you experience the best of Rio Carnival, which represents the apex of the city’s amazing, vibrant culture.

Cordão da Bola Preta

Though Carnaval begins across the country on Friday afternoon, things really get swinging bright and early Saturday morning with the procession of Bola Preta at 7am. With its leaders traditionally clad in white with black polka dots and dancing to the rhythms of marchinha, a sort of satirized military march, Bola Preta is both the oldest and largest bloco in the city, with around two million people joining this parade that has taken over Centro every year since 1918.

Amigos da Onça

Carnaval is nearly a 24-hour affair, with parties stretching late into the night and getting started again at the crack of dawn. On Sunday morning at 7am, Amigos da Onça keeps the energy of Saturday night flowing into the next day with a massive parade along the beach in Flamengo. This bloco is known for its comedic, theatrical style, with amusing original compositions played alongside hits by Brazilian artists that can turn the parade into something like a mass outdoor karaoke party. You’ll see many revelers here dressed up as jaguars (onças).

Simpatia é Quase Amor

Simpa keeps the party going on Sunday afternoon, with a huge procession that starts at the Praça General Osório in Ipanema before parading along the beachfront all the way down to Leblon. The bloco was created during the peak of the Diretas Já movement that called for an end to the military dictatorship and the return of democracy to Brazil, and it first paraded at Carnaval in 1985. Today, it is one of the largest blocos in the glamorous Zona Sul. The parade’s colors are yellow and purple, a humorous nod to the packaging of Engov, a Brazilian medicine commonly used as a cure for hangovers.

Sargento Pimenta

Starting up Monday morning around 8am in the Aterro do Flamengo (near Glória), Sargento Pimenta is a tribute band that mixes the music of the Beatles with the traditional Brazilian rhythms of Carnaval, making for a fantastic mashup with electric energy from the crowd and performers alike. This bloco is more of a concert than a parade, so don’t expect any marching—just find a good spot to enjoy the show in the large park right by the waters of the bay.

Carmelitas

Founded in 1990, Carmelitas is another of the more traditional blocos in Rio, with a bohemian vibe that reflects the Tuesday morning parade’s surroundings in the colorful, hillside neighborhood of Santa Teresa. The bloco mascot is a nun, based on a legend about a young nun who escaped from the Carmelite Convent of Santa Teresa to join the Carnaval festivities in the city below. Moving to the rhythms of marchinha and samba, the procession runs along the Ladeira de Santa Teresa, leading down past the convent and into Lapa.

Banda de Ipanema

Parading on Tuesday afternoon, this bloco is one of the oldest in the city, heading down the beachfront in Ipanema since 1965. While most other blocos use a carro de som (sound truck) loaded with speakers to blast their music to the multitudes, the Banda de Ipanema keeps it acoustic, with no amplifiers used by their wind and percussion sections. For this reason, it’s a good idea to get there early so you can be close to the front of the procession. They gather near the Praça General Osório before heading down to Avenida Vieira Souto along the beach.

Sambadrome Parades

While the blocos allow for a more participatory experience where you can join in on the fun, the most amazing spectacles are the highly choreographed parades put on by the samba schools, who spend the entire year preparing for their parade. The ticketed event is held at the open-air Sambódromo da Marquês de Sapucaí, designed by the legendary Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer; over the course of three nights (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday), the twelve schools of the Grupo Especial (Special Group) put on elaborate parades that run from around 9 or 10 at night until 4 or 5 in the morning, with four schools performing each night.

Each parade is an unbelievable spectacle, consisting of more than 3,000 performers and six to eight massive, themed floats, each telling their own story as they move slowly through the parade. The group is led by the comissão de frente, with ten to fifteen dancers whose choreographed routines introduce the school’s theme; next comes the abre-alas, which is the largest and most elaborate float. Behind the first float are the mestre-sala (master of ceremonies) and porta-bandeira (flag bearer), who perform an elegant dance as they lead out the rest of the floats, which are well-stocked with dancers in front of and on top of them. Bringing up the rear is the bateria, with more than 200 drummers who set the tone for the entire performance, along with the singers who ride in an amplified truck (carro de som) directly in front of them.

While famous schools like Portela, Mangueira, and Beija-Flor often win the competition, each of the twelve samba schools puts on an incredible performance that is worthy of admiration. Each school represents a specific neighborhood or community, usually located in working-class areas or favelas on the outskirts of the city, giving a voice to Afro-Brazilians and other marginalized groups whose traditions have left an indelible mark on the culture of Rio and Brazil as a whole.

Monobloco

Though Carnaval officially ends at noon on Ash Wednesday, life in the city won’t resume its normal pace until at least the following week. The unofficial ‘closing ceremony’ of Carnaval is Monobloco, which is held on Sunday morning after Ash Wednesday. Originally held in Copacabana but since moved to Centro to accommodate the size of the crowds, this bloco represents one last hurrah before closing the book on Carnaval for the year. Its festive atmosphere is buoyed by its eclectic mix of music, with styles ranging from traditional marchinha and samba to forró from Brazil’s northeast as well as modern styles like funk carioca and Brazilian pop.

Looking for more tips on what to see and do around the city? Visit our Rio page here.