Brasil Multicultural Bloco

Last night we went on an amazing bloco called Brasil Multicultural.

As I said earlier, the abada for this bloco was a pair of Capoeira pants, so we pulled them on, donned shirts and headed off. When we arrived at the bloco I was a little unsure we were in the right place because of 2 things. Firstly, we were the only people in Capoeira pants and we were the only whiteys. Ana arrived with her husband, Spider, from the Capoeira school confirming we were in the right place and introduced us to some other people she had hooked up with the bloco. An impromptu Capoeira exhibition/fight/spar left us all dumb struck, “incredible” was a word that I kept muttering throughout the night, which cost Ben a beer as a wayward foot knocked it from his hand. Afterwards, Spider kindly informed us, “You need to have your shirts off when we go past the cameras so we all look the same.” Huh?

Tops off, the bloco started to move and a not-so-random girl came up and told us to form a line between a breaking crew and some traditional African dancers. Ana came up, “A choreographer will show you what to do, but don’t worry, he’ll keep the moves simple.” Umm, ok!

At this point it occurred to me that maybe we were in an African cultural parade more than a bloco and I think I was right. Drummers ahead, choreographed dancing and Capoeira around us, smiles everywhere and the occasional TV camera, we had an absolute blast. Finally, we’d found what I imagined of Carnaval and it was great.

As we moved along, the bloco took up more of the… bloco vibe and became a big party with incredible drumming, a great singer on top of the main bloco truck and, as performers, we got free water J

Tonight is the last night of Carnaval and Fatboy Slim is playing in the “Gringo” bloco which will be interesting. This is the first time there’s been a bloco with just DJs on it and I can’t imagine how it is going to work without the Carnaval anthems and thousands of people singing along to them.

Luego!