Samba Festival

Crawling through traffic. Pedestrians flock to the subway stations to partake in the samba festivities. The 2 day / 12 hour parade (7pm - 7am) showcases 14 of Rio's biggest samba schools. More than 120,000 spectators show up to cheer for their favorite teams. Each school has about 4,000 participants with 10 - 12 amazing floats and around 80 minutes to dance their way down the long stretch of the Sambadrome.

Our tour group got there around 11pm and watched agape for a few hours. There were costumes and floats of all kinds - casino themes, Star Wars themes, fantastical birds and animals, clowns, goddesses, and more. The most striking aspect was seeing an endless stream of color, glitter, sequins, and feathers parading by. And best of all, everyone looked like they were clearly having an exuberant and joyous time - a needed respite from the strains of everyday life.