Você fala português?

I have officially registered an account with Ticketmaster Brasil. Jay and I will be based in Rio de Janeiro from December through the end of February. That calendar places the famous Rio Carnival squarely on our doorstep. Missing the city's signature cultural spectacle while living right beside it is simply out of the question. The objective now is securing two standard Sambadrome seats, even if they are simply a small space on hard concrete bleachers.

The ritual was nominally anchored to the Catholic calendar as a final indulgence before the solemnities of Lent. That theological pretense is long gone. For a full week, Rio completely abandons civic sanity in favour of competitive stamina and industrial percussion. Two distinct forms of organized hysteria take over.

First come the street gatherings. Out on the pavement, hundreds of neighbourhood blocos pull millions of costumed revellers into the humid thirty-degree heat. These parties require no tickets and obey few schedules. Revellers simply trail brass bands and sound trucks in a swaying marathon of cold beer and rhythm.

Across town sits the Sambadrome. Oscar Niemeyer’s concrete runway has hosted the official competition since 1984, turning neighbourhood pride into a stadium blood sport for over four decades. Each premier samba school spends twelve months building multi-storey motorized floats and hand-sewing thousands of elaborate costumes for a single eighty-minute charge under blinding floodlights. Drum sections four hundred musicians strong lock into an acoustic hammer. It will last all night with eight continuous hours of sensory assault watched from bare cement steps.  Of course, we will forgo upscale watching from VIP booths with celebrity entertainment, buffets, and drinks because they can be priced at thousands of dollars!

 

The electronic account is setup. Whether this foreign registration ever actually yields two viable seats remains an open question.