5 to 13 Feb 2027
Seats on a Special Group night are the thing to book, when the top schools parade until dawn; the street blocos the next morning need nothing but good shoes.
5 to 13 Feb 2027. Times are approximate and can change from year to year.
The schools competing for promotion open the Sambadrome.
The second night of the promotion parades at the Sambadrome.
União de Maricá opens, then Beija-Flor, Paraíso do Tuiuti and Vila Isabel.
Mocidade, Unidos da Tijuca, Salgueiro and Imperatriz Leopoldinense.
Portela, Viradouro and Grande Rio, with Mangueira closing the parades.
The best-placed schools return to the Sambadrome for one more night.
Two carnivals run side by side. At night the samba schools take the Sambadrome one after another, each a moving show of drummers, dancers and floats, and the parades run on until the sun comes up.
By day the streets belong to the blocos, parties that set off behind a band and gather a crowd as they go. No ticket, no seat, and no need to plan beyond a meeting point.
Each Special Group night has four schools, and each one fills the avenue in turn with its drummers, dancers and floats. Mangueira closes the last night. The oldest bloco, Cordão da Bola Preta, takes over Avenida Rio Branco in Centro on Carnival Saturday, dressed in black and white. Buy Sambadrome seats only from the official sellers, and choose your sector before the night.
The parades moved to the Marquês de Sapucaí in 1978, and Oscar Niemeyer's permanent stands followed a few years later.
Flamengo, Catete and Botafogo are on the metro and close to the Sambadrome. Wherever you book, stay near a station, since the parades finish around dawn.
Where to base yourself, and what else is on
The Rio de Janeiro guide has the rest of the city.
Sixteen days of beer tents and brass bands on a Munich meadow. Get there on a weekday morning and a bench is yours without a booking.
Lima's purple month: a float carried through the old centre from dawn into the night on five days in October.