It's carnival time! Brazil's five day festival is under way
and there's plenty to see
Rio's five day festival has got underway, kicking off with
the yearly ceremonial to King Momo yesterday.
Rio Carnival in full swing despite alarm over Zika
RIO DE JANEIRO • Rio's Carnival - a five-day festival of
dancing, bared flesh and wild costumes - is under way, in the face of warnings
that the Zika virus might make even kissing dangerous.
Rio's mayor, Mr Eduardo Paes, handed a big golden key to the
city to the carnival's ceremonial ruler, King Momo, who promised a spectacular
show.
"With great happiness, brotherly love and peace, I
declare the best carnival on earth open - our Carnival in the Marvellous
City," the dancing king, who is elected ahead of the festivities, said on
Friday.
The annual mega bash, famed for lavish - and skimpily
dressed - samba parades and all-night street dancing, is expected to attract as
many as five million people.
In Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populous city and its economic
capital, carnival celebrations were kicked off under intermittent summer rain.
This year's carnival across Brazil starts under the cloud of
the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus, which normally results in few ill effects,
but is blamed for an outbreak of serious birth defects in babies born to
mothers infected while pregnant. The growing alarm over Zika - and uncertainty
over how the virus can be transmitted - comes at the worst time for Rio, where
about one million tourists are expected to join millions of locals at parties
and parades.
In August, Rio will become South America's first city to
host the Summer Olympics, and there are mounting fears that the mega event will
be disrupted.
Foreign governments are lining up to urge tourists to avoid
countries having the Zika-carrying mosquitoes, and Brazil itself has
specifically advised pregnant women not to come to the Olympics.
The carnival peaks today and tomorrow night with the
competing samba parades at the Sambadrome, famous for their choreography and
extraordinary costumes.