Carnival in Rio: »Grande Rio« awarded as best samba school

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Dancer of the »Grande Rio« samba school: triumph in the sambodrome

Photo: Wagner Meier / Getty Images

The »Grande Rio« group won the competition for the best samba schools at the carnival in Rio de Janeiro.

The group from Duque de Caxias, north of Rio, beat out 11 other schools that paraded through the sambodrome over the weekend with a presentation honoring Afro-Brazilian culture and the deity Exu.

It is the first title for »Grande Rio«.

"We wanted to deconstruct the negative prejudices attributed to Exu, who is a diverse and living deity, due to religious racism," master of ceremonies Leonardo Bora said after Tuesday's election on TV channel Globo.

For the first time since the beginning of the corona pandemic, Brazilians celebrated their world-famous carnival on Friday and Saturday.

Last year and on the actual date in February, the party was canceled.

Tens of thousands of people from the stands and millions in front of television screens in Brazil and around the world watched the parades in the Sambodrome.

Despite the official cancellation, many people celebrated again at the street carnival.

Numerous samba groups – the so-called blocos – marched through the center of the Brazilian metropolis.

wit/dpa