RIO DE JANEIRO: Tens of thousands of people defied a thunderstorm Sunday to pack Rio's Sambadrome as elite dance schools paraded in dazzling costumes and revelers shed inhibitions at street parties.
An estimated crowd of more than 72,000, from great-grandmothers to babes in arms, swayed and cheered on their favorite samba school in hours-long parades in Rio's annual party to end all parties.
Thousands of people, many wearing disposable rain ponchos, watched from viewing stands open to lightning and driving rain, although by the early hours the downpour had virtually stopped.
"The rain doesn't bother me. In fact, it gets us going and we crank it up a notch. It was too hot anyway," Cleberson Santos, 43, told AFP just ahead of the Viradouro parade.
Ciro Melo, a 34-year-old dancer from the northern city of Natal said despite the parlous state of Brazil's economy and rampant political disaffection, carnival was a glue holding the people together.
"Carnival brings all Brazilians together because we are a country of deep social division," the dancer said.
Spectators marveled at the pageantry, including Vila Isabel school's 15-meter-long (50-foot) "octopus" whose tentacles twirled dancers through the air.
Jefferson Kim of the Salgueiro samba school wore only shorts and gold-painted chains around his hands and neck in a nod to Brazil's history of slavery, the origin of samba.
"The chains are just a bit of fun -- but with a touch of historic conscience," Kim, 30, told AFP.
His school's parade was led by a giant moth operated by a dancer, trailed by a huge dinner setting replete with 10-meter candlesticks, an enormous teapot and what appeared to be a faux roasted pig big enough to feed hundreds, in a tribute to Minas Gerais regional cuisine.
Sunday and Monday night 12 elite samba schools each comprising some 5,000 participants are sashaying well into morning at the Sambadrome, designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.
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