Ana M. López
Research expert covering travel, tourism and hospitality
Carnival in Brazil - Statistics & Facts
Carnival is, without any doubt, the biggest national festival in Brazil. From the Friday before Ash Wednesday, the entire nation unites in one big street party for five consecutive days, where locals and tourists alike are invited to join the festivities. The 2023 edition of the event marks the return to normality for Carnival revelers after two years of cancelations due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In 2021, the Carnival did not take place for the first time in over a century. And in 2022, the street parades – known as blocos de rua – were also canceled, while the official parades at the Sambadromes in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo could only take place in April of that year.
The second largest Carnival venue in Brazil is the Sambódromo do Anhembi in São Paulo. Inaugurated in February of 1991, the Anhembi has a total capacity of up to 30 thousand people. In 2022, over half of the audience of the Sambadrome’s parades were women. Considering age, the samba school parades in São Paulo were mostly attended by spectators between 30 and 49 years old.
The ‘marvelous’ samba parade
Since the mid-1980s, the samba parade at the Marquês de Sapucaí’s Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro has been a landmark of the Brazilian Carnival. Each year, samba schools perform in flamboyant costumes and carriages in front of thousands of people. These celebrations are also broadcasted live by TV networks all over the country, which was one of the main reasons why they also became globally known. In 2022, more than 200 thousand people attended the parades at Rio’s Sambadrome. Unsurprisingly, the share of international visitors at the event dropped between 2020 and 2022. Though even back then, Brazilians constituted the majority of Sapucaí’s attendees.The second largest Carnival venue in Brazil is the Sambódromo do Anhembi in São Paulo. Inaugurated in February of 1991, the Anhembi has a total capacity of up to 30 thousand people. In 2022, over half of the audience of the Sambadrome’s parades were women. Considering age, the samba school parades in São Paulo were mostly attended by spectators between 30 and 49 years old.
Carnival street parades
The Sambadromes parades might be the most known events for outsiders. However, most of the Brazilian Carnival happens in the streets, animated by the blocos de rua. These are formed by performing artists and bands who parade across the cities while dancing and playing music, usually disguised in costumes representing different characters of a story or a theme. For the 2023 Carnival, São Paulo was set to host 511 blocos – the highest number among major Carnival destinations. These street parades usually gather thousands of people around them. Right before the coronavirus (COVID-19 ) pandemic, for instance, the most popular bloco in Rio de Janeiro attracted a whopping one million people.
