Feathers, fringing and a captivating spectrum of colours: The very best photos from Rio Carnival's opening weekend
24 February, 2020
It's arguably the highlight of Brazil's events calendar, bringing an incredible number of spectators to the seaside city of Rio de Janeiro.
And this year's Rio Carnival is completely swing, with celebrations kicking off with parades aplenty on Friday.
The celebrations, that will continue until Wednesday, February 26, include samba performances from myriad dance schools, parades, floats and parties through the city's streets, with participants dressed up in flamboyant, colour-laden costumes.
Scroll through the gallery above to start to see the best pictures from Rio Carnival 2020's opening weekend.
The carnival, which attracts up to two million persons to Rio's streets every day of its programme, is held each day in the lead-up to Lent.
The celebration goes back to the 1600s, and was at first devised as a food festival, though became synonymous with samba from the 1920s onwards.
Lots of the carnival's events are actually ticketed, with the samba displays held at Rio's concrete arena referred to as the Sambadrome.
Source: www.thenational.ae
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