With the parade of the samba schools at the Sambódromo, on this holiday in Tirantes and São Jorge, an out-of-season carnival atmosphere was created in the city of Rio of January. The city hall itself started to consider the weekend as carnival, since the original festivities, which would be held between the last week of February and first of seath, had to be canceled due to covid-19.
The street blocks parades were not authorized by the municipal authorities, but Mayor Eduardo Paes said he would not repress them.
“I’m not going to run after revelers. What we ask for is people’s understanding. All that was needed now was to put the Municipal Guard behind the revelers. This will not happen. We have allowed the city to celebrate, to live life. The city is full, the streets are full, bars and restaurants are crowded. The city is open, it’s celebrating. I’m not going to stay behind revelers not even by a decree”, said Paes on the 16th.
Carnival block parades through Cinelândia, in downtown Rio de Janeiro – Tomaz Silva/Agência Brasil
The blocks have taken advantage of this gap left by the city hall to take to the streets this weekend. in the afternoon of today (23), for example, a block brought together hundreds of revelers in Cinelândia, downtown.
Pedro Henrique Garcia, 22, was one of those revelers. According to him, since the beginning of the weekend, it has been several blocks. “I missed that a lot. It’s something that has been with me since childhood. Unfortunately, it didn’t have the preparation we expected. There is no toilet and people are having to use the street,” he said.
Julia Souza, 26, took advantage of Saturday to go to Cinelândia with her friends. According to them, it was the first block they enjoyed this weekend. “We heard that the blocks would be good, we just didn’t come before because a friend of mine was working. we enjoy todaywhat is Saturdayto come to the block”.
At the moment when the Brazil Agency was in the block, there was only one Military Police vehicle and a Municipal Guard van, which left the place before the report.
Carnival block parades through Cinelândia, in downtown Rio de Janeiro – Tomaz Silva/Agência Brasil
On your Twitter profile, in the last to haveOn Tuesday (19), Paes stated that he did not authorize the blocks because he did not have time to prepare the necessary structure for the blocks. “The organization of street carnival – started in my 1st government – requires months of preparation, something difficult in the unpredictability of pandemic times,” he wrote.
