For the 40 or so days before Easter, Brazil kicks into gear preparing for Carnaval. This year's main events will take place from March 4 to 7, with the Carnaval parades on March 5 and 6 as the main highlights. In Rio, escolas de samba, or samba schools, are the organizations that present the parades and hold rehearsals, which are open to visitors about a month before Carnaval officially begins. Each school is comprised of 3,000 to 5,000 elaborately costumed dancers, a line of percussionists, and lavishly decorated floats. A school is judged on its samba do enredo, or theme song, choreography, costumes, float decorations, and its consistency with the theme of its parade.
Themes center around Brazilian history, a particular personality, or a historical event.
Nowadays, schools are pressured to wow audiences with visual effects beyond the standard costumed displays. Schools are accompanied by sound-equipped trucks that also provide pyrotechnics like laser lights and fireworks. This samba do enredo is played at peak volumes through the street during the school's parade, which can last about an hour or more. The First Samba Samba, a rhythm brought to Brazil by African slaves, was actually carried to Rio by immigrant women from an eastern Brazilian region called Bahia. It was at one of these gatherings that the first stanza of a song that later became the first samba tune was composed.