The world's biggest carnival, which officially opened Friday, will hit peak party level at the all-night parade competition Sunday and Monday.
This year's King Momo, Djeferson Mendes da Silva, holds the keys to the city of Rio de Janeiro during the official carnival opening ceremony on February 17, 2023RIO DE JANEIRO - With a swirl of glitter, sequins and samba, Rio de Janeiro will kick off its famed carnival parades Sunday, the climax of the festival's first full-on edition since Covid-19 and Brazil's bitterly divisive elections.
Mayor Eduardo Paes declared the party open Friday, symbolically handing the key to the city to"King Momo," the jovial"monarch" who"rules" Rio for the four-day free-for-all. A participant performs during a street party close to Flamengo beach in Rio de Janeiro on February 18, 2023Rio is ready to party after two pandemic-disrupted carnivals and a polarizing presidential election in October, in which veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ousted incumbent Jair Bolsonaro -- an ultra-conservative carnival critic accused of authoritarian tendencies.
"We went through a very dark period, in terms of both politics and the pandemic," he told AFP at the party's 2023 edition -- one of hundreds of street parties being held around carnival for the first time in three years.
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