Keep notes of Rio Carnival Dates

Get your Carnival dates right so you don’t miss out on all the fun!

Knowing the Rio Carnival dates is important to make sure that you do not miss out all the highlights of the festivity. Moreover, contrary to your own belief, carnival does not happen for only one day. There are samba parades for 4 days and, for at least one week, there are numerous festivities to attend at Rio Carnival.

There are several Rio Carnival dates to remember and the most important one is the performance of the Special Group Samba Schools. These are the ones who will actually compete during the samba parade and thus have to come up with the most pompous presentation for the crowd. It is such a huge event, that this parade is televised in different parts of the world.

The special group is composed of 12 different samba schools, 6 will be parading on Sunday and 6 on Monday. Yes, the competition is normally divided into two parades, each having the same number of samba school performances. Most would aspire to see the two parades and participate in a samba parade marathon. However, because of the schedule and the cost, you may want to decide which of the two you want to be part of. The venue will start accommodating the audience at 5pm in the afternoon, but the official parade will begin at 9pm. It will end around 4am in the morning. Each Samba school has exactly from 65 to 82 minutes to parade at the venue.

There is also the access group parade, on Friday and Saturday before the Special group parades. These are the participants who are competing to become part of the special group the next year. These ones, of course, have less pageantry than the special groups’ parade. Nevertheless, you may still want to catch these two just to see who has the chances of making it the following year. You can then keep track of their progress, especially their rehearsals. These are also the best opportunities for people who want to get in the parade wearing their own costumes. The costumes are usually less expensive and the parade is not so long as the special league ones.

Tickets for the Access Group can also get expensive clorser to the event, but it may be worth it, particularly if you want to dance the samba and wear one of their costumes. Costumes and tickets for the access league are usually much less expensive.

Another of the many Rio Carnival dates to be remembered is the Winners’ parade, the Saturday after the main parades. The top 6 samba schools from the special group will perform again in front of the crowd at this champions’ event. Usually, there are fewer people during this time, and the tickets would also drop to as much as 50 percent. There are three reasons for you to watch this: less expensive, less crowded and lots of fun.

Carnival balls and street parties are held everywhere all throughout the festival, and they do release their schedule and list of events well ahead of time. As soon as we have the schedule, we already publish that in our website as well as our Carnival Guide. You can join that for free, at anytime! You just have to register.

Scala balls are more affordable way to party during the carnival season, though street parties let you experience the real Brazilian way of living it up. The Scala has a new location Downtown, just 30 to 40 minutes away from Copacabana and Ipanema. Perfect for those who are willing to mingle with locals and enjoy a non-touristic party. However, if you prefer areas full of tourists and risk-free like Ipanema, Scala balls not your place.

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*Get full coverage of Rio 2013 Carnival, pictures, videos and find out who won the parade!

*Webpage in Portuguese