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Jackie: Yes. It's strange to think that the carnival has its roots in religion because the most famous carnival of all, perhaps, is the one in Rio which is a riot of music, dance and scantily clad women.
Richard: So Rio has the world's biggest carnival. There's two million people on the streets every day and up to half a million foreign visitors. So what are the main parts of the carnival then, Jackie?
Jackie: There's two main parts I suppose, Richard, to the whole Rio carnival. There's the official parade which is called the Rio Samba Parade and then there's the street bands and parties.
Richard: So what's the Samba Parade, then?
Jackie: Well, samba of course, is the famous Brazilian music, with it's...
Richard: The dance.
Jackie: The dance and the music, yes.
Richard: Oh, all right, Okay.
Jackie: It's THE music of the carnival. The Rio Samba Parade is a competition between the twelve samba schools in Rio.
Richard: So it's a competition then, is it?
Jackie: Yes
Richard: So that all happens in the street, then?
Jackie: Well it used to. Interesting question, Richard. It used to up until 1984 when in fact it all takes place in an enclosed... what they call a Sambadrome, which is a huge stadium I suppose, enclosed, with tickets that cost hundreds of dollars.
Richard: So it's not the free carnival, then?
Jackie: That part isn't, no. But if you want to go and see carnival in the streets, then you go and see one of these street parties. Each of the neighbourhoods in Rio has a band and they all get together with the procession and people dress up in costumes and then they play classical carnival songs and Brazilian popular music. It's just on a much smaller scale but that's all free. And that's in the streets.
Richard: Now obviously I haven't been to Rio, I haven't seen it in the flesh but it looks an amazing event: colourful and noisy...
Jackie: When you look at all the pictures it looks very... it just looks like a whole, I don't know, an array of people, colours and things but actually it's very well organised. Each of the schools has to choose a theme...
Richard: Right
Jackie: ...which can be anything, an animal, a famous person, an expression, whatever. They choose a colour and then they write specific samba songs that go with the theme that they've chosen.
Richard: And do they have to wear very skimpy outfits?
Jackie: You can't be completely naked.
Richard: Right [laughs]
Jackie: But, as we've seen from the pictures, many are topless or almost naked but the costumes themselves they start making these eight months before the actual event and they are the most amazing imaginative, colourful, elaborate works of art almost, but all of them are linked up to this chosen theme.
Richard: So they get marked on the dancing, the music, the floats, the costume...
Jackie: The theme and everything.
Richard: The theme, wow.
Jackie: Yeah, yeah. So, you know, you can either pay a lot of money and go and see this competition, or you can join in with the smaller neighbourhood um... events. But all of them you'll hear samba, all of them, they'll have loads of dancing and all of them there'll be these fantastic costumes.
Richard: And I'm sure they'll all have a fantastic time.
Jackie: That's without doubt.
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