Rio de Janeiro, Feb 17 (IANS/EFE) Brazilians were back in the streets Tuesday after the end of the famous samba school parades in Rio de Janeiro’s Sambadrome, to dance along with groups and orchestras on the last official day of Carnival.
The celebration began early when members of the “bloco” Acorda came out to dance with whistles and rattles through the streets of the northeastern city of Recife to kick off another day of revelry. A “bloco” is a neighbourhood Carnival group in Brazil that invites everyone along the way to join the parade and have fun.

“Don’t sleep: Carnival isn’t over” was repeated by members of the bloco as they danced through several streets of the historic city, where the festivals compete in popularity with the ones in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador.

Carnival officially ends just after midnight with church bells ringing to call people to Mass on Ash Wednesday, but since Brazil will only begin getting back to normal around midday, nobody wants to waste the last hours of festivities.

Even the business world understands that it can’t rob hours from Carnival, so the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange will not resume operations until Wednesday afternoon.

The Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, the 800-metre avenue where the samba schools parade surrounded by stands for the spectators, was empty early Tuesday after the presentation of the Mangueira school, the most popular in the country and the last on the programme.

In Rio de Janeiro, where the parades of street blocos have attracted a record 2.5 million people since last Friday, the groups again came out early so as not to lose a minute of the last day of Carnival.

Salvador, which competes with Rio de Janeiro for the title of the city that gets the most people dancing in the streets during Carnival, also started early with parades of “electric trios” - trucks carrying a stage for orchestras with powerful sound amplifiers.

–IANS/EFE

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