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.