Parades, music, dancing in the streets – joyous Carnival celebrations marking the final days of revelry before Lent are peaking in New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro and other locales in the Americas and Europe.
A dancer from the Tom Maior samba school performs during a Carnival parade in Sao Paulo, Brazil, early on Sunday, 11th February, 2024. PICTURE: AP Photo/Andre Penner
Each city has its unique Carnival customs but the similarities are inescapable. Dancers in feathered headdresses gyrated and strutted in parades featuring lavish floats with giant figures of Greek gods or pop stars. Costumes abounded and the themes of the various festivities ran from whimsical to satirical.
Krewe of Tucks parades on the Uptown route through New Orleans on Saturday, 10th February, 2024, during carnival season before Mardi Gras. PICTURE: Sophia Germer/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP.
Shoulder-to-shoulder crowds savoured the music and rhythms around a music truck in Salvador or outside Bourbon Street nightclubs in New Orleans.
Revelers celebrate at the traditional Alter Markt the start of the street carnival in Cologne, Germany, on Thursday, 8th February, 2024. PICTURE: AP Photo/Martin Meissner.
As the celebrations grew over the weekend, fanciful costumes were on the rise. One group of revelers wore costumes made from beer and soda cans during a parade in Madre de Deus, Brazil, on Sunday. A reveller in New Orleans strolled Bourbon Street in an intricately beaded hat adorned with gold butterflies.
Performers from the Salgueiro samba school parade during Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, early on Monday, 12th February, 2024. PICTURE: AP Photo/Bruna Prado.
Politicians and world figures were lampooned. The words “Choke on it ”were lettered on a float in Cologne, Germany, showing a giant Vladimir Putin eating Ukraine. In New Orleans, Donald Trump, President Joe Biden and his son Hunter and the local mayor were ridiculed in caricatures on floats.
A carnival float depicts Russia’s president Vladimir Putin eating Ukraine, lettering reads “choke on it” during the traditional carnival parade in Duesseldorf, Germany, on Monday, 12th February, 2024. PICTURE: AP Photo/Martin Meissner.
