Guide to Rio Carnival 2009 Grand Parades at the Sambadrome

This February 20th, at the Sambadrome, located in Brazil, the Rio Carnival will be presenting Grand Parades. These parades are part of some of the biggest events of the entire Carnival celebration. The Sambadrome is a host to 6 grand parades during the annual Carnival season. These parades comprise the top competitions that are contested by the caRIOcas, or Rio born people. Five of these parades involve the top schools of samba, and one exhibits the skills of the Junior Schools.

With nearly 100 Samba Schools in Rio, the Carnival season is integral because of its parade competition. With a samba school ranking system that divides the 100 schools into 6 groups, each of these groups compete amongst themselves to be the group-champion of the year. The Junior Schools group is composed by 18 schools.

The competition is held for group-champions so that may be promoted to the immediately superior group. Schools that score the least points in their groups are downgraded to the immediately inferior group. 3 groups parade through the Sambadrome during the Carnival season while the Junior group parades the Friday before the Carnival and the Champions. With so many different seating areas to choose from, the best locations, usually, are important ones. Each seating location gives a different perspective on each aspect of the various levels of skill that each samba school possesses. Each parade lasts anywhere from 1 hour to 1 hour and a half, approximately. Critical areas of interest include costumes, choreography, drumming, and several other points.

The Sambadrome is the venue where the Samba School parades take place. It is sided by 14 seating blocks, capable of holding up to a total of 70,000 spectators. With 4 types of seats for sale, everyone experience both an exhilarating experience and a have a privileged panorama of the whole parading grounds. These 4 basic types of seats include camarotes, frisas, arquibancadas, and cadeiras numeradas. Camarotes offer great view, privacy, and also VIP services. Frisas provide a private seat that is closer to the sounds of the parade celebration. Arquibancadas are, usually, the most popular of all the seats. These are grandstand seats, which lie close enough to get in direct contact with the local people and cheer for the samba schools. Cadeiras invidviduais seats are the 2nd type of uncovered foregrounds seats. In fact, they have the 2nd lowest prices for the parades and are at a budget value.

Source:

1. http://www.carnivalservice.com/en/carnival/tickets/parades-in-sambadrome.php .