SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – São Paulo and Salvador have decided to hold a unified Carnaval from July 8th to 11th of next year. According to Carnaval specialist Dam Menezes, both capitals now expect Rio de Janeiro to confirm the date too.
However, in a meeting on Monday, November 9th, the Independent League of Samba Schools of Rio de Janeiro (LIESA) did not reach a consensus and would rather wait for the vaccine against Covid-19. In addition to the health issue, another factor is troubling the organization heading Rio’s celebration: the lack of political and financial support.
“The material for making costumes comes from China. China is not exporting. Whatever it has, it will be much more expensive and scarce. So the schools would have to recycle old material. A school parade, as cheap as it may be, costs R$5 million (US$925,000). Let’s say we have R$1,5 million from the government plus the value of TV Globo’s rights, which would add up to a little more than R$2 million for each school. You can’t make a grandiose carnaval with this. Another problem is the ticket sales. Nobody knows if the audience will buy tickets to watch the parades in July and then in February, after this financial crisis,” said Dam.
According to Dam, the July date was not well accepted in the League meeting either. “Initially the LIESA had discarded this date, but today it’s an option. There is no mood for it. It’s the cold season and there will be no street carnaval, and that atmosphere all over the country. Perhaps only in Sapucaí people will be in the mood. There’s a lot of technical issues involved. If we have our feet on the ground, we realize that there is no way to have a Carnaval in 2021. My suggestion would be a celebration at Apotheosis Square, with old and nostalgic sambas, telling the story and relevance of the samba plot to the culture of Rio de Janeiro and the city,” he concluded.
Source: Metrópoles