Rio Carnival

What actually happens

Desfile das escolas de samba — the parade itself, judged on nine categories. Blocos de rua — street bands, some with 400 drummers, all free to join.

• 01Desfile das escolas de samba — the parade itself, judged on nine categories.
• 02Blocos de rua — street bands, some with 400 drummers, all free to join.
• 03Corte do Rei Mom — the symbolic handing of the city keys to the King of Carnival.
• 04Quarta-feira de cinzas — the ash Wednesday run that formally ends everything.

Sound of the crowd

Samba-enredo is the only genre written for a moving stage set. Beyond the Sambadrome: marchinhas, pagode, funk carioca and the cuíca's thin electric shriek that cuts through every bateria.

How it survived

The first recorded Rio procession was in 1641. Ranchos carnavalescos appeared in the 1890s; Mangueira, the oldest active school, was founded in 1928. Oscar Niemarch's Sambadrome opened in 1984 and moved the parade off the street and onto architecture.