Glitter, sequins and skin: Rio's carnival kicks off

Rio de Janeiro kicked off its annual carnival parades Sunday in a swirl of glitter, sequins and barely covered skin, an over-the-top spectacle that this year is packed with political commentary on Brazil's far-right government.

Vying for the title of carnival champions, the city's 13 top samba schools get one hour each to wow spectators and judges with elaborate shows flush with scantily clad dancers, small armies of drummers and floats built on seemingly impossible feats of engineering.

The event has taken on a particularly political tone after a year under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has deeply divided Brazil with his attacks on just about every cause close to the carnival community's heart: diversity, homosexuality, environmentalism, the arts.

"This carnival has a lot of protests because we want the world to see what's going on here (in Brazil). There are lots of people who are against this very extreme government," said Camila Rocha, dressed as an enormous gemstone as she prepared to enter the "Sambadrome," the massive avenue-turned-stadium where the groups parade.

Her samba school, Estacio de Sa, kicked things off with a show on the theme of "rocks" that featured gigantic floats covered in dinosaurs (prehistoric rocks), sparkling diamonds (precious rocks) and, finally, the moon.

Director Rosa Magalhaes said that was meant to evoke the Earth turning into a barren, moon-like rock -- the kind of environmental catastrophe that critics warn the world could face if Brazil does not do a better job protecting the Amazon.

Bolsonaro has faced condemnation from environmentalists and the international community over his policies on the world's largest rainforest.

Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon increased 85.3 per cent in his first year in office.

Biblical battle 
Another top samba school, reigning champions Mangueira, threw religion into the mix.

They are planning a show about Jesus returning to Earth in one of Rio's impoverished favela neighborhoods with "a black face, Indian blood and a woman's body," and preaching a message of tolerance.

That has already drawn backlash from a key group of Bolsonaro supporters: Christian fundamentalists, who sent Mangueira a petition calling the show "blasphemous."

The most successful school in the history of the contest, Portela, will pay tribute to Brazil's indigenous Tupinamba people, who lived in Rio de Janeiro before the Portuguese colonizers arrived.

Their central samba song features veiled criticism of Brazil's far-right wave.

"Our community has no party or faction, it has no bishop and bows to no captain," it says.

Those are likely references to Bolsonaro, a retired army captain, and Rio Mayor Marcelo Crivella, a fellow far-right politician, who is a bishop in one of Brazil's biggest evangelical mega-churches.

Other schools have chosen themes such as fake news in Brazil's 2018 presidential race and black and women's rights.

Funding cut 
Crivella has openly criticized the city's world-famous party since taking office in 2016 and steadily cut the 28 million reals ($6.4 million) in annual public funding that the top samba schools used to receive.

This year, the schools received zero funds from the city.

Often based in Rio de Janeiro's poorest neighborhoods, the samba schools spend most of the year getting ready for carnival, with the help of thousands of workers and volunteers.

The spectacle lasts until dawn, with a live audience of some 70,000 spectators and millions more watching on TV.

Mangueira won last year's contest with another politically charged show that spoke out against Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship. Bolsonaro, an army officer at the time, has often praised the military regime.

In reality, Rio has already been partying for carnival for more than a week with epic street parties known as "blocos."

Fueled by alcohol and samba, they gather an estimated two million people for a seemingly endless series of informal parades.

"We want to have fun and be happy, but respecting everyone's limits. Respecting individuality, beliefs, choices," said reveller Rogerio Borges, 19, one of 630,000 people who flooded the streets for the annual Cordao de Bola Preta parade.