Carnaval Multicultural
Recife/Olinda has one of the best carnival parties in the country for being the "Carnaval de Todos." In Rio, you only get to samba with enough money to buy a costume or a ticket and Salvador is equally exclusive because you have to buy a shirt ($$$) in order to parade with the Trio Electricos, but in Recife everyone heads to the street dressed in crazy costumes or everyday clothes to brincar (play) carnival.
Carnival in Recife is also amazing because of the diversity of music you will hear. In Rio and São Paulo samba is the thing, and in Salvador it is all Axe, but Recife has such a diverse variety of music there is no way that I can list it all. Recife is currently celebrating 100 years of Frevo and it is by far the most common music you will hear during Carnival. The word Frevo comes from "ferver" which means to boil. I can only describe it as a frenetic clown dance with leaps and squats all done with a tiny umbrella and a giant smile on your face. I took a couple of frevo dance classes, but I couldn't hack it. It is too much bouncing around for me and my bad ankle.
The streets are also filled with the rhythms of Maracatu, Caboclinhos, Coco, Afroxe, Samba, Electronic music, Mangue Bit (or Beat), Hip hop, Rock, etc. On Friday night, we went down to Marco Zero to see Silvério Pessoa with Manu Chao, Paulo Miklos and Fernando Anitelli do Teatro Mágico. It was a great show and an amazing opportunity to see Mano Chao. I had never seen him live and we were right up front during the show. I have been trying to find out if he was going to have a show other than the Marco Zero appearance, but I had no luck, and then I met him and asked.
On Saturday we were in Olinda and our bloco, Eu Acho é Pouco, stopped for one of its breaks and he walked right by me. I looked at Sam and said, "Is that Mano Chao?" Sam confirmed and I ran after him tapping him on the shoulder saying "licença, licença, você é Mano Chao?" and he stopped, confirmed that we was in fact Mano Chao, and I asked him about more shows in Recife (negative) and told him I really enjoyed the show the night before. He said that he would probably be back at the end of the year (damn) and then I quit bothering him. Wow.
That alone was enough to make the night great, but we ran into lots of friends, danced and had a great time. So far, Carnival is going well...and I am not sick. This is the first Carnival that I haven't had the Carnival cold. Carnival cold is really common due to the excessive abuse of alcohol, lack of sleep, and lots of tourists bringing new germs, everyone gets Carnival cold on Wednesday, except me, I get it before and during Carnival. So being healthy this year helps a lot too! I have been dosing vitamin C for the past week in preparation.
Off to Recife Antigo for more Carnival!
1 comment:
How cool!
By far the best live concert I have ever seen was Manu Chao in Rio, under the Arcos da Lapa. It was pouring rain, and Bruno came with me to the concert because none of my other friends were interested (surprise, surprise!) and I was too chicken to go alone.
Post a Comment