8 march 2011

What a night..! I walked it. The Sambadrome! I still can't believe it actually happened. But it did... and it was massive!

The night started with the preparations of Sabine the Dutch Sambaqueen. These things are not to be taken lightly. It took about two hours to do her make up and get her into her specially designed outfit. But the result was breathtaking. In the meantime other schools were already parading in the Sambadrome. On Monday night the best six schools walk through. Grande Rio was supposed to start at 1 a.m. but as usual in Brasil everything is constantly delayed which nobody really cares about. So we started at 2:30 a.m. That sounds quite late but the party was just getting started!

The schools all line up around the corner of the entrance. Despite of the fire Grande Rio still had a surprisingly good parade. It's unbelievable how much they put together in just a couple of weeks. About 5000 people walked with the Grande Rio parade alone! With outfits. And six floats.

But then it started to rain. And by rain I mean tropical rain. Exactly at the moment when Grande Rio was supposed to start. It really wasn't their year.
But the beauty of it was that it made them even more proud. They sang and danced like never before. After all the hardship nobody cared about the rain. They just wanted to party. We just wanted to party!

The floats rolled around the corner and the giant Sambadrome revealed itself. It's indescribable what you see and hear when you enter. So loud. Without a doubt the biggest party I've ever been to.

We danced the whole way. I took photos as far as possible with the rain. Giel Beelen, the Dutch DJ, called live from Holland while I was walking in the Sambadrome. We were cheered all the way to the end. People knew what had happened to Grande Rio and here they were, dancing in the pouring rain. They loved it. This years’ Carnaval was one they will never forget. And I was there.