Carnival is very significant to the people of Brazil. There are carnival celebrations in virtually every corner of Brazil, the best-known ones taking place in Recife together with the neighboring Olinda (in the North of Brazil) and Salvador. But the biggest and most famous carnival is undoubtedly theCarnival in Rio De Janeiro. Rio is the second largest city of Brazil and its carnival is a world famous festival or we could say that Rio is Carnival Capital of the World. Carnival in Rio De Janeiro is the extravagant samba parades officially run from Feb. 13 – 16, but the celebrations always end up starting earlier and ending later. The carnival parade is filled with people and floats from various samba schools. The purpose of the parade is for samba schools to compete with fellow rival schools. Each school chooses a theme to try and portray in their entry. The Rio Carnival Parade takes place in the Sambadrome, (“Sambódromo Marquês de Sapucaí”, in Portuguese), which was designed by Oscar Niemeyer and built in 1984. It consists of a 700 metres stretch of the Marquês de Sapucaí Street converted into a permanent parade ground with bleachers with capacity of 90,000 people, built on either side for spectators. An estimated 730,000 foreign tourists, carnival in Rio de Janeiro is the biggest party on the planet!
