On the 15th, the Tourism Company of the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro (Riotur) will publish the names of the blocks authorized by the city hall to parade in this year’s street carnival. A record number of blocks registered with Riotur from August 15, 2025, totaling 803 associations, but Riotur’s initial forecast is that only 465 will parade. The process was completely online.
For the 2025 carnival, 685 blocks requested accreditation and 482 were authorized by the city hall. Of these, however, only 444 fulfilled the schedule after 38 cancellations, representing 32 fewer blocks than in the 2024 momo festivities. The official 2026 street carnival calendar will extend from January 17th to February 22nd. Thirty-five blocks will parade for the first time.
135 parades are planned in the city center, 56 in the north zone, 63 in Greater Tijuca, 46 in the west zone, 37 on the islands of Governador and Paquetá, 12 in Jacarepaguá, 100 in the south zone, 16 in Barra da Tijuca, Recreio and Vargens.
In the Circuito Preta Gil, where the megablocos parade and which covers sections of Avenida Presidente Antônio Carlos and Rua Primeiro de Março, in the center of Rio, this year will be paraded by Cordão da Bola Preta, Fervo da Lud, Bloco da Anitta, Bloco da Favorita, Monobloco, Chá da Alice, Bloco da Lexa, SerQAbre?, Bloco da Gold and, new this year, Cordão do Boitatá, which will take part in the circuit for the first time.
The name was given by Mayor Eduardo Paes in honor of the singer Preta Gil, daughter of the composer, singer and former Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil, who passed away on July 20 last year, after two and a half years of fighting bowel cancer. The dates for the parades have not yet been announced.
This year, the carnival will be on the 14th (Saturday), 15th (Sunday), 16th and 17th of February.
The president of the Independent Association of Street Carnival Blocks in the South Zone, Santa Teresa and Center of the City of Rio de Janeiro (Sebastiana), Rita Fernandes, informed AGENCIA Brasil that Cordão do Boitatá is a ground block. Despite this, it was included by the city hall in the megablock parade location. “As its circuit was changed a long time ago, the city hall made an agreement and the block is now on the megablock circuit.”
Simpler rules
Rita Fernandes celebrated the increase in blocks registered to participate in Carnival 2026, compared to the number registered last year. She confirmed that “the number of requests has increased, which does not mean that the city hall has given authorization. But there are more people asking to be able to become official. Even blocks that were called unofficial and did not talk to the city hall now want to become official. Especially because the city hall launched a promotion notice for a street block and then, as there is money, the block needs to be made official. But it did not reduce anything, on the contrary, it increased”, she reinforced.
Carnival groups bring joy and irreverence to the streets of Rio – photo – Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil
According to Riotur, there were blocks that paraded more than two or three times and, this year, they will parade once or twice, for example. Therefore, the forecast of authorized blocks will be lower than in 2025.
Riotur Ordinance 324, dated January 8 of this year, published this Friday (9), in the Official Gazette of the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro, established the granting of cultural incentives to street block parades in Carnival 2026.
The value of the resources is R$5,000 for street blocks with up to three thousand revelers; R$ 25 thousand for street blocks with 3,001 to ten thousand revelers; and R$50,000 for Street Blocks with 10,001 revelers or more.
Fewer demands
Asked if the number of demands from Rio’s city hall had increased this year, Rita Fernandes assured that this had not happened.
“That has already changed. The requirements have not increased. In fact, on the contrary, they have decreased mainly in relation to blocks that do not have electric trios, stage structures”, he said.
These groups no longer need to go to the Fire Department to obtain a license to participate in the carnival. If the block does not use bleachers, electric trios or sound cars, it does not need regularization. But, if there are physical structures, it is essential to follow safety standards. A primer online node website of the Fire Department of the State of Rio de Janeiro has all the guidelines.
“The blocks that don’t have these structures no longer need to go to the fire department. So, on the contrary, the new ordinance that Riotur issued has improved, made it easier, it’s simpler. I think that for the blocks that are simpler and that were suffering a lot from this, it has improved. The blocks that have very large sound cars, stages and so on, there’s no way around it. For safety reasons, the firefighters continue to make demands that they already made at other carnivals”, explained the president of Sebastiana.
Last parade
Rita Fernandes confirmed that, this carnival, the Suvaco do Cristo group, which parades in the Jardim Botânico, south of Rio, will hold its last parade. “That’s right. Suvaco is going to stop. He had announced last year that it would be the penultimate show and he’s going to stop now. He turns 40 and is ending his career, like the Press that I Gamo did last year. Everyone is really tired.”
