In Joao Pessoa there are street parties - one week before carnival ,
there is nothing here during carnival - cause almost everyone is going to Recife - another city - 150 km south- to celebrate there !!!
As I know now- the carnival - known by European people - is something else than carnival - typical for brazilians. If you are foreigner- most probably u will go to Rio de Janeiro - because it is the most famost abroad carnival in Rio ... with schools of samba and all this beautiful big blocks ...
However for brazilians - the most famous carnival is not there... first of all - it is much more expensive to go to Rio de Janeiro .. another thing is that brazilians have street carnivals - with also other kinds of music ( other than samba ..) The most famous " brazilian - for brazilians" carnival is in Salvador, the famous one is in Recife aswell....
In Joao Pessoa there are parties one week before carnival - I would say warming up ....
and it is crazy ... it looks like real carnival ...
Streets are closed and there are big big tracks - with stages- on the roof - where the bands sing.. and on the "walls" of these tracks - there the extremely big sounds systems ....
People walk dancing - and follow these tracks .. and what is interesting - there are around 10 these big tracks ( depending on the size of bloco ) and on every track there is another band who sings alive ....
People are crazy .. noone sits.. people talk to each other.,.... sing together .. dance ect....
I dont know how they are not tired.. because the brazilian music is very fast...
And I went for these parties on Friday and on Sunday
On Friday - there were street parties- without moving down the street- but with bands and stages.
The name was "picole da manga" = "Mango Icecreams on the stick " and during the day - people could taste extremely huge ice cream of this flavour... during the night there was niceeeee party.. finished around 1 am ...
On Sunday - there was "bloco" - called "Virgins" - street party- with these 10 tracks with live music I wrote above ... it is already tradition that here in Joao Pessoa - on one day - there is this bloco - and almost all guys are changing to girls.. girls should change to guys.. but almost noone is doing this ...
but guys - the way they look, the way they act, the way they walk in high heel - it is sooooo funny.... and their make up .... make them look really like a girls ..
sometimes I had difficulties to recognize if someone is really a guy or the girl ....
Geo could tell u - I had it written on my face ... ;PPP
On Monday - there is street party with blocos for kids and on wednesday "murisocas " - mosquitos - the most famost here ... and in fact- second biggest bloco during carnival in Brazil .. People change to be ugly ;PPPP could be fun ... but unfortunatelly I will skip it cause I am travelling back to Campinas on Wednesday ...
but maybe.. probably.. you will have the chance to see pictures made by malwi from carnival in Rio de Janeiro ;)))