Mayor Crivella Confirms Funding Cuts for Rio’s Samba Schools in 2020

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Marcelo Crivella, confirmed on Friday, August 30th, that he will not give any money to the elite samba schools for next year’s carnival parade.

Before the 2019 parade, each of the 14 elite associations received R$500,000 (US$125,000). Until 2016, during the administration of former mayor Eduardo Paes, this subsidy reached R$2 million per school.

Since this year’s Carnival, Crivella had been defending the end of the subsidy, which was expected – although under protest – by the samba schools.

In 2020, there will be 13 associations to parade in the elite group – in 2019, Império Serrano and Imperatriz Leopoldinense were relegated, and Estácio de Sá won the second division and was placed in the Special Group.

“The schools of the Special Group will no longer receive a subsidy from the city government, which has decided that it will no longer give a subsidy for any event that charges admission.

New Year’s Eve (Reveillon) celebrations, the street carnival on Avenue Intendente Magalhães (where third division schools parade), as well as other free events in the city, will remain,” said Crivella on Friday, Aug. 30th. “But the events that charge admission, such as Rock in Rio, the Carnival parade on Sapucaí, and others that have income will not receive more subsidies from the city government,” he said.

According to the president of the municipal tourism company (Riotur), Marcelo Alves, the city government will invest R$ 29 million in Carnival: “For the schools of groups B, C, D and E, we will keep the values of subsidies transferred this year. For the schools of Intendente, subsidies were about R$ 2 million, and we have already guaranteed R$ 27 million for the realization of the street carnival. We continue in conversations with companies that want to invest and put their brand on the Carnival in Rio, which is an event that brings together seven million people,” said Alves.

Doubt remains about the Series A samba schools, the second division of Rio’s Carnival. These associations also parade in the Sambódromo on Sapucaí, but admission is much cheaper and the sources of income of these schools are much more restricted than those of the elite associations. School directors say Riotur had pledged to maintain the subsidy for them, but under the terms that Crivella stated on Friday, Aug. 30th, the subsidy has also ended.