Carnival blocks, carnaval blocos or blocos de rua are street bands that mobilize crowds on the streets and are the main popular expression of

Brazilian Carnival The Carnival of Brazil (, ) is an annual festival held the Friday afternoon before Ash Wednesday at noon, which marks the beginning of Lent, the forty-day period before Easter. During Lent, Roman Catholics and some other Christians traditionally ...

. These parades fall under the term "street carnival", and happen during a period of about one month, beginning before and finishing after Carnival. Blocos usually perform Brazilian rhythms, such as

marchinha Marchinha (, also called "marchinha de carnaval", "marchinha carnavalesca" or "marcha carnavalesca) is one of several genres of music typical of Brazilian Carnival The Carnival of Brazil (, ) is an annual festival held the Friday afternoon bef ...

samba Samba () is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in the Afro-Brazilians, Afro Brazilian communities of Bahia in the late 19th century and early 20th century, It is a name or ...

, frevo, maracatu, and axé.

Rio de Janeiro

Street carnival blocos have become a mainstay of Rio's Carnival, and today, there are several hundred blocos. Block parades start in January, and may last until the Sunday after Carnival. Carnaval Blocos are found throughout Rio de Janeiro. One of the largest and oldest blocos is Cordão do Bola Preta, based in downtown Rio. Other large groups include Banda de Ipanema and

Monobloco Monobloco is a Brazilian Blocos, bloco, or street band, that plays during Brazilian Carnival, Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro and is also a professional touring show. Unlike most of Rio's blocos, which tend play one type of music (typically samba), ...

Recife and Olinda

Recife Recife ( , ) is the Federative units of Brazil, state capital of Pernambuco, Brazil, on the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of South America. It is the largest urban area within both the North Region, Brazil, North and the Northeast R ...

, the carnival block Galo da Madrugada was registered in the

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

as the biggest carnival parade in the world. In its 2013 parade, the crowd following the bloco was larger than 2,500,000 people). Besides Galo da Madrugada, thousands of others carnival blocks with sizes ranging from few hundred to millions of people, perform in the streets of

and

Olinda Olinda () is a historic city in Pernambuco, Brazil, in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region. It is located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, in the Recife metropolitan area, Metropolitan Region of Recife, the state ca ...

including As Virgens de Olinda, Eu Acho É Pouco, Batutas de São José, Lenhadores, Pitombeiras, Segura o Talo, Bloco da Saudade, Enquanto Isso Na Sala de Justiça and O Homem da Meia-Noite.

Minas Gerais

Blocks are the most traditional parading type in

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...

. Zé Pereira dos Lacaios in

Ouro Preto Ouro Preto (, ), formerly Vila Rica (, ), is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The city, a former Brazilian Gold Rush, colonial mining town located in the Serra do Espinhaço mountains, was designated a ...

, founded in 1867, is the oldest block still active in Brazil.

References

{{Reflist Parades Carnivals Brazilian Carnival Samba Carnival music

Rio de Janeiro

Recife and Olinda

Minas Gerais

See also

References