Samba school parades climax Rio Carnival

BRAZIL: Top samba schools took center stage at the Sambodrome late Sunday, to dazzle crowds with giant allegorical floats and scantily-dressed beauty queens in a fiery climax to the famed Rio Carnival.

Over the next two nights, 12 schools will showcase their mesmerizing allegorical pageantry before a global television audience, the highlight of a five-day extravaganza.

Their floats are packed with dancers wearing huge headgear, feathers, sequins, body paint -- and little else. The fierce contest for the title of Brazil's Carnival champion is watched with the same fervour as football matches in this soccer-mad nation.

The first school to perform late Sunday will be Inocentes de Belford Roxo, with a colorful homage to Korean culture on a theme called "The Seven Confluences of the Han River" that will invoke the protection of the ancient Korean wind goddess Yondung Halmoni.

Salgueiro, last year's Carnival champion Unidos da Tijuca, Uniao da Ilha, Mocidade and Portela will then follow.

Six other schools will stage their own parades Monday night. Thousands of participants bedecked in elaborate costumes made their way to Rio's 72,500-seat open-air Sambodrome, designed by the late star architect Oscar Niemeyer.

AFP