Thousands of revellers and samba dancers took to the street for the
opening night of the annual carnival
celebrations
Samba dancers wearing bodypaint, feathers, glitter- and not a lot
else - have taken to the streets of Sao Paulo for the opening of
the country's wild carnival festivities.
Dancers from local samba schools put on a spectacular parade
through the huge Sambadrome arena as up to 30,000 revellers looked
on.
Similar to Mardi Gras, the five-day-long street party builds up to
Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Christian season of
Lent.
The carnival's excesses are considered an "act of farewell to the
pleasures of the flesh," before Lent, during which Christians are
supposed to abstain from bodily pleasures.
Carnival is celebrated in towns and villages throughout Brazil, but
the festivities in Sao Paulo and capital Brasilia are the biggest - with around half a
million foreign tourists flocking to the country every year.
