G.R.E.S Unidos do Porto da Pedra has topped Série Ouro, the second league of samba schools, with its samba “A Invenção da Amazônia”. The school will now parade with the elite schools of the Grupo Especial in 2024.
The samba was based around a book by Jules Verne published as “La Jangada” in French in 1881, and “Eight Hundred Leagues of the Amazon” in English.
It was Porto da Pedra and its returning carnavaleso, Mauro Quintaes, that featured the Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs in its carnival samba “Samba No Pé e Mãos ao Alto isto é um Assalto” (Samba On Your Feet and Hands Up. This is a Robbery) back in 1998 in Grupo Especial..
Imperatriz Leopoldinense is the champion of Rio’s carnival, 22 years after its last title. The green, white and gold school of Ramos paraded on the Monday night with “O aperreio do cabra que o excomungado tratou com má-querença e o santíssimo não deu guarida”, of carnavalesco Leandro Vieira.
Imperatriz Leopoldinense travelled to the northeast to tell the story of the arrival in both heaven and hell of the bandit leader and folk hero, Lampião. It is the school’s ninth title and the carnavlesco’s third title having previously won with Mangueira in 2016 and 2019, in addition to having won the Série Ouro twice, with Imperatriz itself in 2020 and with Império Serrano in 2022. But it is Império Serrano that is relegated straight back to Série Ouro.
Joining Imperatriz for the winners’ parade will be Viradouro, Vila Isabel, Beija-Flor, Mangueira and Grande Rio.
The results of Rio’s Carnival Parade in 2023 were:
The markings and results of the main samba school parades in Rio will now start at 16.00 on Wednesday, 22 February at the sambodromo (19.00 in UK).
In all, 12 schools from the Grupo Especial and 15 from the Série Ouro will be evaluated in the categories of drums, samba, harmony, evolution, plot, allegories and props, costumes, front commission and mestre-sala and porta-bandeira (ballroom master and flag bearer).
This year, there will only be four marks per category, and only the lowest note will be discarded – unlike recent years when there were five sets of marks and the highest was also removed. The final classification will be determined by the total sum of the marks and often just one or two percentage points out of 270 can make the difference of winning, losing or being relegated.
Thanks to the Riotur.Rio team of talented and hard working photographers, a quick and colourful look at the second of the two nights of parades of Rio’s top samba schools, the Grupo Especial. On 20 February it was the turn of Paraíso do Tuiuti, Portela, Vila Isabel, Imperatriz Leopoldinense, Beija-Flor and Viradouro.
The results of the Grupo Especial, which covers Rio’s top twelve samba schools, will be announced in Rio on Wednesday (22 February) starting at 15.00 local time (18.00 in London). The lowest scoring school will be relegated to the Série Ouro for 2024, with the winner of this year’s Série Ouro joining the top 12 in 2024.
Dates of the parade of the Grupo Especial in 2024 are 11 and 12 February.
Saturday, 18 February, sees the return of the iconic Baile do Copa carnival ball to the equally iconic Copacabana Palace, A Belmond Hotel in Rio de Janeiro.
The hotel is celebrating its centenary this year and the ball – that took place for the first time in 1924 – will celebrate its own centenary in 2024. This year’s theme for the ball is “Time Tunnel” to encourage guests to dress to recreate some of those special moments from the hotel’s past 100 years, or even if they wish from its future. The hotel promises an evening of “decadence, joy and glorious excess,…”, something we all need in 2023. Many of the great and the good have attended the ball over the decades from Orson Welles to Brigitte Bardot, to name just two.
In 2023 the main parades of the Grupo Especial in Rio de Janeiro’s carnival are currently scheduled to take place on the nights of Sunday, 19 February and Monday, 20 February 2022. The 12 schools and the order that they will parade in 2023 are:
Sunday, 19 February 2023
Monday, 20 February 2023
Rio the Guide 