Carnivaltakesoverthestreets

Revelers sing during a street carnival parade

Rio Carnival isn't just about the samba school parade, as proven by the racket of drumming, singing, dance steps, water trucks, and plenty of loud chatter that fills much of the streets. Carioca revelry began in the streets and never left.

The first records of carnival blocos in the city date back to the mid-19th century. They were essentially anarchic groups of revelers, who took to the streets in an indiscriminate way. At the beginning of the following century, however, certain organizational traits began to bring rhythm to the libertarian chaos of the early blocos and cordões. These were times of segmenting the revelry. Large carnival societies and ranchos held more organized parades. Cordões were the epitome of confusion and unrestrained merrymaking. The blocos, in turn, stood somewhere in between the two.

Image description: This is a photograph of a group of people taking part in a carnival. The image shows six people dressed in colorful costumes and tall red and blue hats, all featuring a golden letter "X". On the left side, there is a man wearing a blue uniform with gold details and holding a pen. To his right is a woman with gray hair, wearing a red uniform with gold details. In the center, a Black man is smiling broadly, holding a microphone and pointing at the camera. He is wearing a white uniform with yellow and black details. To his right, there is another woman with colorful hair and vibrant makeup, also wearing a red uniform. Beside her is a woman with blonde hair and a blue uniform with gold details. Everyone appears to be at a festive event, possibly a carnival parade.

Old blocos, such as Cacique de Ramos and Bafo da Onça, are still part of the traditional parades through downtown Rio to this day, as are other highly traditional groups — such as Cordão do Bola Preta. Others ended up as ancestors of samba schools, such as Baianinhas de Osvaldo Cruz, considered a precursor of Portela.

Céu na Terra Block - Santa Teresa - Rio de Janeiro

For a certain time, the taste for street blocos cooled off. But, over the last decade, with the revival of Rio's street Carnival, the blocos multiplied and once again took over the city, with their mischievous, multifaceted, unpredictable style.

Photo: Thiago Diniz - Children play at Carnival - 2013

Image description: The image is a photograph of a wall painted in vibrant pink. At the top, there is the phrase "ADICIONE COR" written in white letters. Below, there is a small mirror reflecting two people from behind, both with colorful hair. The person on the left is wearing a black swimsuit, while the person on the right wears a white top and colorful shorts. Around the mirror, there are some inscriptions and graffiti in various colors.

This is what the blocos and cordões that still follow, in the invented and reinvented cartography of the city, the thread of tradition, reaffirm. The names already give clues to the playful spirit that sums it up: "Loucura Suburbana", "Orquestra Voadora", "Amigos da Onça", "Cordão do Boitatá", "Céu na Terra", "Prata Preta" and many others. Just like the stories and tales that gave rise to them, they mirror the irreverence that is the trademark of the celebration.

Image description: This is a photograph of a nighttime event, possibly during Carnival, with people dressed in colorful costumes. In the center of the image, there is a smiling child holding a doll dressed in festive clothing. The doll has a yellow mask with colorful details and is wrapped in several layers of vibrant fabrics in shades of green, blue, pink, and purple. In the background, there is artificial lighting and some trees, suggesting that the event is taking place in a park or public area at night.

The "Bloco das Carmelitas," for example, is said to have emerged around 1990, when a group of pickup soccer players who used to kick a ball around where the Parque das Ruínas is today, in Santa Teresa, saw a nun jump over the convent wall to join in the Carnival festivities. Other blocos, meanwhile, choose to flaunt the connection between their names and the city's history, as is the case with "Escravos da Mauá" – a title that harks back to the markets where enslaved people were sold in the 18th and 19th centuries, which stood on the streets of the Saúde neighborhood, near Praça Mauá and Morro da Conceição.

Not to mention those blocos that, being so traditional, have lived to tell the story of the city, like the century-old Cordão do Bola Preta, founded in 1918. This is also the case with the more than 80 years of the “bate-bolas,” known as “clóvis” – a corruption of the English clowns­ ­ – which date back to the Folia de Reis celebration. The clóvis mix revelry and terror, causing fascination and fear wherever they go.

Image description: The image is a photograph of a smiling person. The person is wearing a colorful hairstyle with strands of hair in shades of pink, blue, green, and red. The person's face is also painted with vibrant colors, including blue, green, pink, and white. Two pearl earrings are visible. In the background, there are other people, but they are out of focus.

Every street, in every part of the city, carries with it a varied set of sounds, and each of these sounds tells part of the spirit of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Diverse in their origins, street blocos are not limited to a single pattern, nor do they follow the same roteiro. On the contrary: the menu of genres caters to a varied audience. It ranges from samba to sertanejo, passing through funk, forró and maracatu. There's even a bloco that dabbles in rock. And while some of them are popular enough to draw crowds, others have a more intimate feel, change their name every year, and don't announce the time or place where the procession sets off.

But if, in some year, the expected bloco doesn't happen, there's no problem. You can simply create a new one. That's how, for example, in 2006, the Cordão do Boitatá gave rise to the Cordão do Boi Tolo, known as the bloco "that never ends," due to the long hours it spends parading through the city's streets.

Image description: This is a photograph of a carnival event on the streets. On the left side, we see people dancing and holding a colorful hula hoop. In the center, a man and a woman are dancing together. The woman is wearing a colorful dress with vibrant details and white shoes. The man is shirtless, wearing patterned shorts and black sneakers. In the background, other carnival participants are present, some wearing colorful costumes. There are tall buildings and a green tree at the top of the image.