The title of this article, despite seeming aggressive, is a question to the reader: who is interested in an extension of parade days?
On April 26th, the Independent League of Samba Schools of Rio de Janeiro elected a new president. The League’s last Marketing Director, Gabriel David, was elevated to the post on a single ticket, as usual. Gabriel marked the last carnivals by trying to get out of the bubble and look for new solutions for schools.
The program TV Globo Samba Selection (which ended up being canceled), mini-parades and other events in Samba Cityonline coverage of technical trials and the search for new sponsorships, such as that of the brewery Brahma, which at this year’s carnival even created personalized cans for each group, were some of its actions. Furthermore, the biggest of all, without a doubt, was the creation of the brand Rio Carnivalwhich has allowed the Rio Carnival to be taken outside of Rio de Janeiro, further internationalizing the brand.
The new president is also known for having a very close relationship with two carnival groups that are disliked by samba dancers in general: famous people and those in the boxes. With each passing year, the number of grandiose – and very expensive – boxes that fill Sapucaí with famous and wealthy people increases, who are much more concerned with enjoying the shows on the dance floor than the traditional school parade. There, the important thing is the abadá and the like. Reflect the messages of the parades and sambas? Leave it alone!
So, we return to the motto of this text: who is interested in a new parade day? From what was reported, the broadcast media would have liked the idea. You don’t even need to check the cabins. Another day, more tickets and, with that, more money. With fewer schools, less service and operation time. It’s win-win, but only for them.
On the samba dancers’ side, a speech that emerges is the idea of having fifteen schools in the special group. This possibility had already been discussed a few years ago and was put on the shelf. The reason? More schools means sharing the ever-decreasing share of television sponsorship. Would an extra day of sales make up for this loss? Hard to say, but probably not.
Furthermore, would having three more access schools bring any additional competition for the special title? Again: probably not. Rio’s carnival, like Brazilian football, is heading towards a dichotomy that, sometimes, will be broken by someone. Not to mention that today’s Samba City only has 14 shacks, another problem that would add water to the beer idea. The solution would be to leave the current Cidade do Samba for Access and move to Cidade do Samba 2 – a project announced some time ago by the city of Rio and with no specific date for completion.
The last time we saw so many schools together was in 1997, when we had 16 schools parading. At the time, the parades started at 7:40 pm and the maximum parade time was 80 minutes – 10 more than currently.
When it comes to Carnival in Rio, we can expect everything… even nothing! It may be that the proposal is financially validated and splits up the carnival, making it even more difficult for a reveler to attend all the schools. If it was already expensive – and difficult – to buy two days of tickets, imagine now having to buy three! Let’s wait for scenes from the next chapters.
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