PREVIEW: Rio ready for Carnival after police suspend strike

By Diana Renee Feb 15, 2012, 1:17 GMT

Rio de Janeiro - Rio de Janeiro is ready to open its world-famous Carnival on Friday, to the delight of an expected hundreds of thousands of tourists and celebrity visitors including singer Jennifer Lopez, actress Monica Bellucci and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

A strike of police officers and firefighters that started last week to agitate for higher pay briefly jeopardized the celebrations. However, participation was low, and the protest was suspended late Monday, at least until after Carnival.

The path was thus cleared for Rio's colourful, extravagant feast. The city's biggest event is expected to draw 850,000 Brazilian and foreign tourists and attract about 650 million dollars, local authorities said.

The climax of Rio's Carnival is to come, as it does every year, Sunday and Monday nights, when the city's 12 biggest samba schools come together in an exuberant pageant at the Marques de Sapucai Sambadrome.

The Sambadrome has been revamped and enlarged this year to get closer to the original plan of its creator, famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.

On each of the two nights, 72,500 people are to attend the pageant and watch around 40,000 samba school members competing for the 2012 Rio Carnival champion's title.

Some samba schools plan performances to honour icons of Brazilian culture like writer Jorge Amado and painter Candido Portinari, but many have opted for foreign themes.

Uniao da Ilha will devote its parade to London, host of the Olympics later this year, with focus on British icons from Queen Elizabeth and the late Princess Diana to literary young magician Harry Potter.

Portela is to honour the Afro-Brazilian culture of the north-eastern state of Bahia, a traditional theme in the Rio Carnival. The humble Porto da Pedra surprised many when it announced that it would devote its performance at the Sambadrome to the history of yoghurt!

The samba school Grande Rio will address the theme of people's ability to overcome obstacles, with emphasis on the late Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and Paralympic athletes - a performance expected to be one of the most moving moments at the Sambadrome.

The history of Rio's street Carnival will serve as a theme for the popular Mangueira, while Sao Clemente is to address musical theatre, with references to global successes like Cats and Hair.

Although the party is to begin officially Friday, samba drums were already beating around Rio. This past weekend, 100 groups performed in several neighbourhoods, drawing scores of thousands of enthusiastic supporters.

The groups known as 'blocos' have greatly increased in number in Rio over the past decade, leading local authorities to block off streets so they can perform, but also restricting permits for them to do so.

Rio's Carnival is to finish in the early hours of Ash Wednesday. By then, 435 'blocos' are to have performed in various parts of the city, attracting an estimated total of 2 million people.

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