The Rio Sambodrome Parade

Sao Clemente samba school parade on a float during carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro.

Mangueira samba school parades during carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Porto da Pedra Samba School.

Grande Rio Samba School.

 

Carnival in Rio de Janeiro
Check out the official tourist site of the city of Rio de Janeiro (in English) and visit the Carnival in Rio section.
Besides being a popular feast, Carnival in Rio is a show business; people having fun is just part of the business.
Most events in Rio's carnival happen either in ball-rooms or in the sambodrome.

The Balls
Since a few weeks before the official start of Carnival, several clubs promote pre-carnival balls; these are called "bailes pre carnavalescos", in case you want to search the newspapers.
These balls happen both in big clubs (like world famous Flamengo) or smaller suburban clubs. Almost always, one must pay to party. The price of the ticket depends on the organizer.
As carnival approaches, these balls pop up all around the city. Many are suitable for entire families, some are even dedicated to children. Most balls, however, start after 11pm and are adult oriented; the most famous of such balls is the Gala Gay (read this commercial description of the Gala Gay to have a better idea of what goes inside).
The most famous balls are frequented by tourists, national and foreigners; the organization, as well as the government, have a special interest in keeping these events safe.
For further information about these balls, check out the carnival sections in the major Brazilian newspapers.

The Parades at Sambodrome
Certainly, the most known Carnival event of the world.
Sambodromo is the name of the domus built for the parades of carnival (under the structure of the sambodrome, there are schools which attend children the rest of the year). Like a football stadium, the audience must pay to enter, and the prices, which vary according to the location of the seat, may be expensive; going to the sambodrome usually takes much savings effort for the average Brazilian salary-people.
During two nights, fourteen samba schools (the collective of people is designated as a "school") parade along the sambodrome; seven schools perform the Saturday, the other seven come on Sunday. Official judges analyse the performance of each school under several criteria (rythm, coesion, costumes, timing, audience response, etc), a grade (from 0 to 10) is given, the school with more points is the winner.
Visit the website with information about the most important Samba schools of Rio.
Every carioca loves a soccer team; likewise, every carioca loves a samba school.
The work to be the best school next year starts as soon as the last parade is finished. Most of the hard work is done by humble people who save their last pennies to have a nice costume. The song theme is composed months before the parade, and countless rehearsals must be attended by the school members (the rehearsals take place during nights and weekends).
The votes of the judges are tallied up in the presence of the school members, and the quarrels about biased votes are inevitable. Seeing their school being the champion is, for some people, comparable to seeing Brazil winning the World Cup.
Even though it's the efforts of these humble people that the school depends on, business sense opened space to qualified strangers. Famous artists (particularly beautiful women) are invited to join schools, in an attempt to captivate the masses.