The Parintins Folklore Festival (Boi Bumbá)

In our last blog we wrote about the Sambadromo at Rio Carnival. Rio isn’t the only carnival in Brazil, far from it, as virtually every town or city in Brazil has some form of carnival in February or March each year. 

One of the biggest carnivals in Brazil though strays from this pattern and takes place in June, the Boi Bumbá.

The Boi Bumbá is also known as the Parintins Folklore Festival (Festival Folclórico de Parintins) and is held annually in the city of Parintins, in the heart of the Amazon. 

The Boi Bumbá, the carnival of the Amazon, is also known as Bumba-meu-boi or bumba-boi and tells the story of the death and resurrection of an ox. Roughly translated Boi Bumbá means to "Beat the Bull." Its name comes from the verb bumbar which means to beat up or beat against, and the expression is chanted by the crowd as an invitation for the ox to charge against them.

The festival is believed to have been brought to the town by migrants who came to the region to seek their fortune during the rubber extraction boom in the early 1900s. Although the festival is steeped in folklore it is also a competition where two teams, Bois Caprichoso and Garantido, compete in extended retellings of the story, each team attempting to out-do the other with flamboyant dances, singing and parade floats.

Whereas Rio has the Sambadromo, Parintins has the Bumbódromo, a round stage which holds roughly 35,000 people. Inside the Bumbódromo is where the competition takes place.

Each team has three hours to complete its show and is subject to penalty points if they run over time. Each nightly performance is largely based on local Amazonian folklore and indigenous culture, but also incorporates contemporary Brazilian rhythms and themes.

The winner is chosen by judges who evaluate each Boi according to several criteria such as the songs, the choreography and presentation of the Boi to name but three. Unlike in Rio at the Sambodromo the enthusiastic participation of the audience in the Bumbódromo is also judged and each Boi has people who are in charge of organizing the fans. Because of this the Bumbódromo is divided in two halves for the Garantido and Caprichoso fans, who dance and wave handkerchiefs and candles and sway when each new character comes into the scene.

This is serious business in Parintins amongst the local population and there is no compromise between the teams. Everybody in town has roots that go all the way up to one of the teams. You can never ever support the wrong Boi – for if you do so, the opposite Boi could win. Fans are very respectful to each Boi and whenever one side is performing, the other maintains complete silence.

The two teams (or Bois) each tell the same story in all three nights of the festival which may sounds repetitive but every night is different because dances, puppets, legends, rituals and alegorias all change and create a new nightly show.

On the morning of the fourth day, the Monday, the winner is announced, at which point fans and supporters of the winning Boi parade around town.

It is not precisely clear how the festival started. Some accounts state that Lindolfo Monteverde, who allegedly created Garantido, brought to life a bedtime story he used to hear from his grandfather. Likewise, Caprichoso was supposedly created by José Furtado Belém.

The play tells the story of Pai Francisco, who worked in a farm, and Mãe Catirina, his pregnant wife who longed to eat beef tongue. Pai Francisco kills an ox (a Boi) to satisfy his wife's craving but this particular ox is a favourite of the village. Villagers try but fail to revive the ox as were the animal to die Pai Francisco would be sent to prison. The ox miraculously springs to life after being healed by a shaman leading to forgiveness of Pai Francisco and a carnival atmosphere begins.   

This year the festival begins on 29^th June and finishes on 1^st July and promises 3 nights of partying and dancing!

Parintins is an hour flight from Manaus or a 20-30 hour boat ride along the Amazon River and the event takes place over three days starting on the last Friday in June.  

Bespoke Brazil can arrange a visit to Parintins as part of a holiday to Brazil so get in touch and let us create a holiday that is tailor-made for you.

www.bespokebrazil.com

9 months today until the battle to be the top Rio Samba school begins!

It only seems like yesterday that Rio Carnival 2012 finished and yet in 9 months today six of the best Samba schools in the city will kick off two nights of intense competition at the newly redesigned Sambadrome.

For the uninitiated, Rio Carnival is the biggest party on earth. For the best part of a week the majority of Rio de Janeiro shuts down to enjoy themselves with family, friends and anyone else they can find. Costumes and cross dressing is all part of the course as hundreds of locally arranged street parties take place throughout the city. These street parties (or blocos) can attract up to a million people at the biggest events such as Cordão da Bola Preta, one of the most famous blocos. We will blog more about the individual blocos nearer to the time that carnival approaches.

The main event takes place in the Sambadrome, the stadium of Samba, located in the centre of the city close to Central station. The Sambadrome was designed by Oscar Niemeyer, Brazil’s most famous architect and built in 1984. In 2011 the Sambadrome received a long over due makeover and expansion which has greatly increased the capacity. For the majority of the year the Sambadrome lies dormant and unused however when carnival begins the area lights up and a magic fills the air.

For spectators there are numerous seating options. The Sambadrome is split into sectors, offering free seating, allotted chairs as well as shared or private boxes arranged along the length of the Sambadrome. The cheap seats are located at the end of the Sambadrome in sectors 12 and 13 which have the worst view of the runway but undoubtedly the best atmosphere and is a very local experience.

A visit to the Sambadrome though is all about viewing the parades so the closer you can get the better. In the free seating areas, the arquibancadas, sectors 5, 6, 7 or 8 offer generally the better views of the runway. These are concrete bleachers and can be relatively busy but comfortable nonetheless. Sector 9 is the tourist sector which is more spacious and has more facilities but at a higher cost and with a slightly less passionate crowd. For a real close up view the frisas or camarotes (the shared or private boxes) are the place to be and the paraders are within touching distance. The boxes sell out fast and are popular with Brazilian and international celebrities and the place to be seen during Rio Carnival.

See the map of the Sambadrome below for a seating plan.

The Samba schools start utilising the Sambadrome for practice in the weeks leading up to the start of Rio Carnival and the fun begins on the Friday night with the children’s samba parade which isn’t taken so seriously but very enjoyable.

The real competition begins on the Saturday. Much like football leagues, the samba schools can face promotion and relegation with all the schools aiming to be part of the special groups which parade on the Sunday and Monday and are the crème-de-la-crème of the samba schools. More about them in a moment. On the Saturday the schools in Access Group A parade. There are generally 10 schools that take part and these are aspiring to gain promotion to the Special groups. The winner of the Access Group A will take their place in the Special Group the following year. On the Tuesday roughly 14 smaller schools make up Access Group B with the winner looking for promotion into Access Group A. 

The two big nights during carnival are the Sunday and the Monday nights which are big news throughout Brazil. During these 2 nights the top 12 samba schools parade, 6 on the Sunday and 6 on the Monday but in no specific order with the show being covered live on Brazilian TV from its start at 9pm each night to its finish at about 6am the following morning.

Each school consists of around 5000 participants with a variety of sections which we will blog about in the future. Each school then has between a minimum of 60 and a maximum of 82 minutes get the first member of the samba school across the start line and the last member across the finish line.  The schools will do their best to get their last participant across the finish line just as the clock strikes 82 minutes which will be met my rapturous applause by the 80,000 strong crowd. The schools are then judged in 10 different categories between by a variety of judges spread along the Sambadrome runway. The schools are judged on the following criteria;

1.  Percussion Band
2. Samba Song
3. Harmony
4. Flow and Spirit
5. Theme of the Year
6. Overall Impression
7. Floats and Props
8. Costumes
9. Vanguard Group
10. The Flag Bearer

The winners are announced on Ash Wednesday which is a moment of much anticipation and excitement and frequently controversial. The top 6 schools then return to the Sambadrome on the Saturday to take part in the Champions parade.

Sambadrome schedule for 2013

·         Friday 8^th February – Children’s Parade (starts at 5pm)

·         Saturday 9^th February – Access Group A (starts at 8pm)

·         Sunday 10^th February – Special Group (starts at 9pm)

·         Monday 11^th February – Special Group (starts at 9pm)

·         Tuesday 12^th February – Access Group B (starts at 7pm)

·         Saturday 16^th February – Champions Parade (starts at 9pm)

Bespoke Brazil offers you the chance to visit the Sambadrome. We can arrange tickets and guides, if necessary, in any of the stands or private boxes. We can also offer you the opportunity to dress up, join a samba school and take part in the parade which is a real once in a lifetime experience.

www.bespokebrazil.com