Rio de Janeiro's Carnival celebrations formally begin

Feb 17, 2012, 17:24 GMT

Rio de Janeiro - Rio de Janeiro's world-famous Carnival formally started Friday, launching five days of street parties and in the city's Sambadrome.

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes symbolically handed over to King Momo, the king of the Carnival, the keys to the city, which is to host hundreds of thousands of tourists and celebrity visitors including singer Jennifer Lopez, actress Monica Bellucci and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner by the early hours of Wednesday.

A strike of police officers and firefighters threatened last week to jeopardize the celebrations. However, participation was low, and the protest was suspended at least until after Carnival.

Rio's colourful, extravagant feast 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, 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.

On the streets, samba drums have been beating for days and more informal Carnival groups, known as 'blocos,' have drawn thousands of enthusiastic supporters.

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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