Recycling carnival costumes
After nine years in the Access Group, Leão da Estácio de Sá is back to the carioca samba elite.
The maxim ‘one’s garbage is other one’s luxury’ seems to have been specially created for Brazilian carnival. Materials used in luxurious parades in one certain year make the joy of poorer samba associations a year later. And there are samba schools that, besides being champions in recycling, also make an impression on the strict judges.
Believe it: the work of people involved in carnival parades at Marquês de Sapucaí, in Rio de Janeiro, is far from ending right after samba schools cross the last gate of the avenue. By the end of the parade, it’s time to dismount allegories and undress costumes, to sort out what can be reused in next year’s carnival. It’s only after Ash Wednesday that the most intensive recycling and disposal activity begins in the samba sheds, at the City of Samba, where are installed samba schools from the Special Group of carioca carnival.
