Brazil's pet owners challenged a city ban on street parties over the weekend. Photo / Bruna Prado, AP
Brazil's pet owners challenged a city ban on street parties over the weekend. Photo / Bruna Prado, AP
Dozens of dogs and their owners in Rio de Janeiro challenged a city ban on street parties and gathered for their annual Carnival parade Sunday.
Dressed to the nines, the dogs participated in the traditional costume contest inside a private club in the Recreio dos Bandeirantes neighbourhood.
There was Lula dressed as a pink fairy, Cristal as a ballerina with a fuchsia tutu, and Elisa as a queen wearing a golden crown imprinted with red sapphires.
The furry gathering happened in spite of restrictions imposed in January by Mayor Eduardo Paes, who faced with a fast-spreading wave of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, postponed Carnival to April and banned street parties.
'Luna' takes part in the Dog Carnival Parade in Rio de Janeiro. Photo / Bruna Prado, AP
"Every year we have a costume contest and people are waiting for this day. So we thought, 'Let's have the (party) anyway,'" said Marco Antonio Veira, known as "Toto," who has been an organizer for some 20 years.
Debora Guedes made the trip from the nearby city of Sao Goncalo, more than an hour's drive. She came with her 2 year-old dog, Briana, dressed in a Harry Potter outfit.
"I like Carnival but with a dog, it's even more fun," Guedes told the Associated Press.
A dog owner attends an un official pet party to bypass Rio's ban on private street parties. Photo / Bruna Prado, AP
Sunday's "Blocao" — a mixture of "bloco" that refers to the traditional Carnival street parties and "cao," dog in Portuguese — was not the only infringement to the city's Carnival ban.
Since Saturday, when Carnival was supposed to kick in, revellers have been spotted in their colorful party outfits throughout the city, leaving a trail of glitter behind them.
Party-loving pet owners gathered at the pet carnival after Rio's street carnivals were banned due to Omicron. Photo / Bruna Prado, AP
Police officers, who in the past weeks have shut down several "blocos" from the moment they gathered, seemed more lenient with the thousands of party-people looking for some fun over the weekend.
'Bloco' parties play on, despite ban
Thousands defied an official ban on street parties by dancing, singing and mingling to the rhythm of Samba, sometimes as police looked on.
Others attended more formal events that moved indoors this year after City Hall banned "blocos," the tightly packed street parties traditionally thronged by those who cannot or do not want to lay out for pricey tickets for the official parade at the Sambadrome — which this year has been postponed to April because Brazil is still not past the omicron wave.
Revellers defy ban on house parties who don't want to buy pricey tickets for the official parade at the Sambadrome. Photo / Silvia Izquierdo
"I think it's a shame this has to happen this way," said Tulio Brasil, a 29 year-old music marketing director who found one of the unauthorized street parties in the city center.
"It doesn't make sense to crowd everyone into a closed place when the street, an open space, much more airy, is prohibited," he said.
The indoor parties — and the fee to get in — are a heresy for many Brazilians who say that Carnival's block parties are essentially and historically parties by the people and for the people.
Ban on Blocos: Private house parties and gatherings have been banned in Rio this year due to Omicron. Photo / Silvia Izquierdo, AP
Tourists from abroad and across Brazil have turned up in numbers this year in spite of the virus. As of Feb. 24, hotels in Rio were at about 80 per cent capacity, according to Rio's hotel association.
