City to party Brazilian style

  • 2015-01-31
It will soon be the time for the annual carnival festival in Brazil to kick off, and the celebrations will be mimicked here in Sacramento too.

The Brazilian Center for Cultural Exchange is inviting everyone in the area to its upcoming second annual Brazilian Carnival. Revelers should arrive prepared to dance.

Traditionally, the festival is held throughout Brazil, with each region having its own rhythms, costumes, and ways of participating. Some, such as the ones around Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, have huge parades for the public to watch headed by local samba schools. Smaller towns have parades called ‘blocos’, where the public is invited to participate.

The music for the Sacramento Carnival will be of the style found in Brazil in and around Rio de Janeiro. This includes samba de bloco, samba de embalo, and samba-enredo. Other genres from the Northeast Region for the evening will feature the frevo, the samba-reggae, and the maracatu.

Live music will be provided by Remelexo, Tony Santos, and Sotaque Baiano, while the Mistura Brasileira Samba Dance Company will provide an evening of samba, belly dancing, Zumba, drumming, jujitsu, and capoeira. Guests can purchase Brazilian beverages and food throughout the evening. The flamboyant costumes will no doubt make colorful subjects for poster printing.

The carnival will be Saturday, February 14 at 8:00 pm and Sunday, February 15 at noon, both at the YWCA, 1122, 17th St. Sacramento.