Rain keeps revelers away in SP, but first day of revelry was ‘satisfying’ and ‘lively’, say organizers

Representatives of the block collectives expect to see a growth in the audience in the blocks in the coming days of the carnival

upon return of roadblocksIn St. Paulshow collective coordinators and others involved in the festivities are calling for the return of the shows carnival, this Saturday the 11th, was fine and uneventful, with no serious problems. However, they admit that they expected more revelers in the avenues and streets of São Paulo, and so on the rain that fell in the capital in the afternoon he was mainly responsible for frightening the public.

The official numbers for this Saturday of revelry have not yet been released by City Hall and Military police until the publication of this text.

For Lira Alli, coordinator of the Arrastão dos Blocos collective, the “cold and rainy” climate kept revelers away from the streets. “Today’s weather was very unusual for Carnival,” she said. “It’s always raining, but normally it’s summer rains. Today it was cold and intermittent rain, which increases the desire to stay indoors,” she said.

He also commented on the new timetable established by the Town Hall, which resulted in the closure of the last blocks at 18:00. “The City has made the matinee compulsory and closed the night carnival.”

The analysis of José Cury, coordinator of the Fórum Aberto dos Blocos collective, goes along the same lines: that the rain influenced the presence of people in the procession. “But we understand it’s been a good comeback. Let’s see how the city feels. We hope more people participate in the lockdowns this Sunday and next week,” he said.

Due to the covid-19 pandemic, São Paulo has returned to organizing the street carnival on the traditional date of the festival, in February, after three years. The last one was in 2020. The parades of the blocks still continue this Sunday, 12 and the following two weekends (18, 19, 20 and 21, during the Carnival holidays; and on the 25 and 26, after the Carnival).

“Despite the rain, the blocks filled up. And this is a premise of what we will find in the next few days, which tend to be busier,” said Thais Haliski, one of the leaders of the street carnival blocks collective, Commissão feminine.

He also says there have been complaints about traffic and difficulty getting to blocks, “due to Uber and lack of signage on the roads.” Thais says that the complaints have been directed to the regions of Vila Madalena, Faria Lima and that in the neighborhoods of the northern area traffic has become more intense. “With that, people have chosen to use public transportation,” she said.

The report was in the vicinity of Ibirapuera Park to follow the last moments of the Bicho Maluco Beleza block, which paraded along Avenida Pedro Álvares Cabral to the sound of the Pernambuco singer Alceu Valença, who performed for the public. Authorities and people who worked on the event said the atmosphere during the party was serene and peaceful.

According to Captain Bernardes, in charge of military police operations in the block, “few situations of robberies or thefts were reported”, and the party took place “without serious events”. In Estadão, he said the company was expecting between 500,000 and 1 million revelers at the venue, but, according to estimates made based on what he witnessed, the number in attendance was 30,000.

Also in the Bicho Maluco Beleza block, the health teams on duty informed the reporter that few people needed treatment during the celebrations. At one of the medical posts there was no need to use ambulances to take revelers to hospitals. Most of the cases, according to the professionals interviewed by the report, were due to excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages.

There were also no problems with the dispersion of people, whose time set by the town hall was 19:00. Teams from the City Hall, the Municipal Civil Guard and Urban Cleaning started sweeping Avenida Pedro Álvares Cabral and, around 19:00, next to the road towards Pinheiros and the surrounding streets, it was already unblocked and cars were already traveling normally .

After

With the end of the lockdowns in the late afternoon and early evening – plus the lull in the rain – people took the opportunity to continue the party in the bars of the bohemian districts of the capital. The post blocks, nicknamed by the carnival community “slurry”, can be seen in places like Pinheiros and Vila Madalena. However, as seen in the runway shows, the “aftershaves” were lively, but lukewarm in volume and agitation.

Still with the props used in the blocks and glitter on their faces, the revelers moved to Rua Guaiçuí, in Pinheiros, to continue the festivities. With the street closed to cars, restaurants and bars were able to place tables on the sidewalks and in the street. Despite it being crowded, and with little room to move around, one of the employees at one of the establishments considered the movement of people “weak” compared to other weekends.

In Vila Madalena, the main riots were noted at the intersection of Fradique Coutinho and Aspicuelta streets, which was temporarily closed to cars and released shortly after 10pm. There were also revelers left over from the lockdowns in the region, but in a considerably smaller volume than in the Pinheiros neighbourhood.

Source: Terra

Rose

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