Carnival in Brazil is nuts all over the country. Cities like Salvador and Recife have their own Carnival celebrations which are very lively and fun but the most famous Carnival is in Rio de Janeiro. Rio is the heart of Brazilian culture and the international symbol of its greatness. After Carnival has taken place, the nightly winners from each samba school participate in whats called the Champions Parade down the famed Sambadrome.


Above is a picture looking down the Sambadrome. It is really amazing to see with the buzz in the air that the Champions Parade is about to begin. Each of the six finalist samba schools get a little over an hour to strut their stuff and their floats down the Sambadrome to 100,000 admiring fans.

The good tickets to the Champions Parade start at $250 each so it isn’t cheap to see this spectacle but I can tell you that it is certainly worth the money. The floats are the most elaborate things you can imagine. They are all themed in some way and represent a bigger theme for the entire samba school. The detail and work that goes into these floats are amazing. In addition, the detail and work that goes into the costumes that the performers wear is unbelievable as well. As you can see below, the costumes have to be tailored to prevent “wardrobe malfunctions”.

At the end of the night, after several hours of drinking Nova Schin beer and watching more dancing and craziness than you can imagine you reflect on which one you like the best and it’s very hard to decide. In reality, they all deserve to win because of the amount of effort and work that goes into these parades in amazing. There is nothing like Carnival in Rio and the best night of Carnival is the Champions Parade.

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