Super Samba

Hundreds of thousands of revellers flocked to Rio's elegant city centre on Saturday for the second day of the carnival Men jostled with grandmothers and children as drummers beat out intricate samba rhythms accompanying the Cordao de Bola Preta - Rio's most traditional carnival band.

In the midst of the madness, Norwegian tourist Sjur Andre Midthun, 59, of Oslo stood looking on with his elderly parents, who appeared to be in a pleasant state of shock. "I think it's crazy, Brazilians just don't care," said Midthun. "There's only 200,000 people in Oslo, here you got a million partying on the street, you can't compare this to Norway."

From Salvador and Recife in the north to the southern metropolitan sprawl of Sao Paulo, Brazilians staged elaborate parades led by dancing beauties and massive street parties fuelled by bands atop tractor-trailer trucks rumbling slowly through city streets.

Rio's big carnival action comes today and tomorrow night, when the city's top 12 samba schools mount 80-minute spectacles at the 88,500-capacity Sambadrome, featuring hundreds of drummers, thousands of dancers and about a dozen over-the-top parade floats.

Secret parades

But until then, street carnival groups - called "blocos" - own Rio's neighbourhoods. The madness in the streets has gotten so severe that some blocos have started keeping the time and location of their parades secret, to thin massive crowds.

"Every year, more and more blocos pop up spontaneously, so many that most of the e-mails I receive these days are complaining about how there are too many," said Rio de Janeiro Mayor Cesar Maia.

For some the craziness is too much, and many well-heeled Rio residents flee before it starts. Even Maia officially opened the carnival on Tuesday, while hardly anyone was partying, so he could jet to France for vacation.

The Sambadrome competition seems like anarchy, but it is actually a hard-fought competition as each group vies to be declared the year's champion.

That distinction brings little more than bragging rights, but because a single flaw in costumes, floats or dancing can doom a group's chance of winning, the parade at times seems tense.

At the bloco parties, anything goes - making them more and more popular because fans can join in.

Cordao de Bola Preta expects some 600,000 people to turn out for their parade, more than the 400,000 who showed up last year.

Sometimes there are so many revellers, it is hard to hear the music, and Marinho concedes that if crowds continue to grow, they might have to do something to stem the tide.

The Carmelitas group kept the location of their street party secret, but Liz Desantis, 26, of San Diego, California, managed to get to the hillside in time to see old and young men gyrating to samba. "It's just mayhem, a crazy party, tons of people," she said.