The Rio de Janeiro Carnival Samba Schools Parade is organized as a championship dispute. It is a fierce competition, with a Special Group, a sort of first division, with 12 Samba Schools parading on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday of Carnival, 4 Samba Schools per Night.
Other divisions are Golden Series (Access Group – 2nd division) parades on Friday and Saturday and Groups B, C, and D. Over the years, the group names, number of participating schools, and competition rules have changed. The first official parade and contest occurred in the 1932 carnival and was won by Mangueira Samba School.
In 1983, Rio´s former mayor Leonel Brizola ordered the Samba Promenade project to the Greatest Brazilian Architect, Oscar Niemeyer. Its grand opening was on March 2, 1984, and soon became known as the Sambadrome.
While this happened, directors of the Samba schools decided to organize the Independent League of Rio de Janeiro Samba Schools in 1984 (LIESA). One of the first things the League did was split the Parade into two days, Sunday and Monday, and sold contracts to television stations that began paying for the transmission and receiving a percentage of the ticket sales.
Starting in 2025, the Special Group now has 3 Nights of Parade. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday!
The parade starts at 9:30/10pm and lasts until 4-5am. Each of the four Samba Groups has 70 minutes to parade. Samba Schools lose one-tenth per minute exceeded on the Parade, to be deducted from its final score.
Surprises abound in the parades of the samba schools, which keep all secrets to be revealed only at the promenade. However, all Samba Schools also need to follow basic rules within a regulation that gives points to decide who will receive the Special Group big championship title.
There are five judges (spread all over the Sambadrome) for each of the items to be analyzed:
- Drummers
- Samba Theme
- Harmony
- Parade Evolution
- Plot
- Floats and Props
- Costumes
- Front Committee
- Master of Ceremonies and Flag bearer
The lowest note of each item is discarded.
The notes of the Special Group Parade are counted on Ash Wednesday. The Top 6 Samba Groups will parade again at the Sambadrome for the Champions Parade the following Saturday.
The last-placed Samba Group in the Special Group Competition gets downgraded to the Access Group and will parade on Friday or Saturday of the following year. The Champion of the Access Group will open the Special Group Carnival Parade the following year, being the First Group parading on Sunday.
At the end of Carnival, each Samba School starts preparing for next year´s carnival. It´s a full year job and they practice their routine with several months in advance, since they are judged on many aspects of their performance in order to win the prestigious championship and the prize of 2 million Brazilian Reais offered by the City of Rio de Janeiro.