Purists bemoan 'Carnaval Inc.'
Brazil's big event has become an ad for interests as diverse as airlines, milk producers, unions and organized crime.
RIO DE JANEIRO — This evening, millions will tune in to a world-famous spectacle involving carefully choreographed moves, intense competition and fanatical spectators. Viewers will largely put aside their complaints that it has lost its authenticity and become beholden to deep-pocket sponsors.
No, it's not the Super Bowl.
It's Carnaval season, a time of bacchanalian bashes and a fierce determination by the city's many samba clubs to shine in the trademark parades that begin this evening at Rio's Sambodromo, the Carnaval stadium.
Purists object that "Carnaval Inc." has devolved into an advertisement for interests as diverse as airlines, unions and milk producers -- along with organized-crime gangs. Samba clubs, or schools, seek out cash-cow sponsors to finance pageants that can cost several million dollars and months of work to assemble.
"The space for poetry, for fun, for social and political criticism, or even for pure historical themes . . . has become minimal," wrote Aloy Jupiara, a journalist and Carnaval specialist. "Now most themes must have an appeal to the market."
Foreign governments have even gotten into the act. Two years ago, Venezuela's state petroleum monopoly, with the blessing of President Hugo Chavez, chipped in more than $500,000 to the Vila Isabel school, which won the competition.
Outsiders may imagine raucous partyers sashaying down the streets as merry bystanders dance and sip capirinhas, the refreshing national cocktail. Such free celebrations, known as blocos, do proliferate during Carnaval season, and are enjoying a resurgence.
But blocos are not part of the headliner, big-money spectacle kicking off tonight at the sold-out Sambodromo.
Choice tickets can cost $500 or more. Scalpers ply their trade outside the gates. The prices have largely shut out working-class spectators. Celebrities, tourists, politicians and the beautiful people have supplanted them.
Like Super Bowl fans in the U.S., most Brazilians will watch from living rooms and bars, as thousands ofscantily clad dancers, raucous musicians and gargantuan floats roll ostentatiously down the concrete runway.
"The Sambodromo is too commercial," said Renata Cunha, who, along with her daughter, Bruna, 3, was out for one of the pre-Carnaval block parties in the Jardim Botanico neighborhood. "They're all competing for points, after all."
