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Episode details

World Service,02 Jun 2026,26 mins

São Paulo's carnival competition

In the Studio

Available for over a year

Every year during Brazil’s carnival celebrations, samba schools are tasked with creating elaborate parades based around a unique theme, from which they build huge floats, compose a song, and choreograph an entire visual spectacle. Tom Raine follows one of São Paulo’s oldest samba schools, �guia de Ouro, in the final stages of creating their carnival parade ahead of their most important event of the year - parading in São Paulo’s iconic Sambadrome in the attendance of thousands of people, and millions more watching on TV across Brazil. This year they have chosen a theme titled Amsterdam: City of Liberty, celebrating the cities’ values of freedom, tolerance and modernity. It’s not just a celebration but a fierce competition, with rigorous judging and a football-style league system of promotion and relegation. In The Studio goes behind the scenes to São Paulo’s “carnival factory� to find out what it takes to put on a parade, from one whole year of work to just one hour on the tarmac. Presenter/producer: Tom Raine

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