2024-02-09 23:42:02
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Amid thunderous applause, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro crowned King Momo on Friday, marking the beginning of the symbolic Carnival monarch’s five-day reign.
“I declare Carnival 2024 officially inaugurated!” said King Momo following Mayor Eduardo Paes gave him a gigantic gold and silver key. Confetti flew in a room of the City Palace, in the Botafogo neighborhood, where the ceremony took place.
Among the spectators were the typical protagonists of the Rio Carnival: revelers dressed as folkloric characters, jaguars, gypsies and “bate-bolas”, exuberant clowns with identical and meticulously detailed costumes who move in groups. The festivities will last until February 14.
Nowhere were the problems that recently plagued the tropical city noticeable: a dengue outbreak that a few days ago forced the issuance of a public health emergency decree; a federal decree to combat an increase in violence by militias and drug traffickers. In fact, Carnival is an opportunity for people to temporarily forget regarding their problems.
“Carnival is everyone’s passion here,” said Marcio Perrotta, who carried a huge fake ox head on a stick, its horns decorated with flowers. “I am happy to be part of this moment, because in normal life things are very difficult for everyone.”
Paes issued a decree Thursday making the key ceremony an official annual event, requiring his successors to participate. In 2017, former mayor Marcelo Crivella broke with tradition and did not hand over the key.
Momo, played this year by Caio César Dutra, is in charge of “presiding over the Carnival festivities, participating in the parades and costume contests, and promoting the joy of the revelers,” the City Council said in its official bulletin on Friday.
The Brazilian Minister of Tourism, Celso Sabino, also present at the ceremony, declared that 49 million people from all over Brazil will participate in the festivities, 6.5% more than last year.
Approximately 200,000 foreigners will arrive in the country, and many of them — scantily clad and covered in glitter — will join the street parties that occupy and dominate the public spaces of Rio, Sao Paulo and other cities.
On Friday morning, the Carmelites street party was already underway in the bohemian Rio neighborhood of Santa Teresa.
Leonardo Xavier, 20, dressed up as a blue-breasted Smurf. “We needed a quick costume that we might make on the subway. I said: let’s go smurfing! You just have to buy the paint, paint yourself, (put on) white shorts, and that’s it!”
For others, the highlight will be the samba school parades at Rio’s Sambadrome, designed by modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer and inaugurated 40 years ago.
Samba schools spend much of the year preparing gigantic floats and elaborate costumes to parade before millions of spectators, both present and on television. A jury evaluates and decides who is the champion of the close competition.
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