Monday: Grande Rio

4. Grande Rio: The theme was Carnaval itself, and many of the floats and costumes were recreations or references to famous floats and famous moments in previous Carnavals. Sort of a meta-Carnaval. Overall Grande Rio did a fabulous parade with huge, dramatic, gorgeous floats.
One scary moment: Grande Rio had planned to recreate the famous moment from a few years ago when a NASA astronaut flew in the Sambodromo with a jetpack. So, this year they'd arranged for another astronaut (Eric Scott) to do the same thing. But his nitrogen tank exploded during preparation. He was knocked out and an assistant was burned (not sure if it was bad) and the flight was cancelled.
In more minor accidents, an actress parading with the commisao de frente bumped into one of the malabaristas and caused him to drop his pandeiro, which might cost the parade a precious tenth of a point. And actress Susana Vieira managed to parade despite having broken a rib last night by falling out of the window of the Brahma camarote the night before (luckily it is on the first floor of the Sambodromo) while exuberantly waving to some cute famous guy who was in one of the parades. Grande Rio's also being penalized 2 points by LIESA for having their song featured in a TV commercial (a Brahma ad, coincidentally - is Brahma bad luck for Grande Rio?) - apparently that's against the rules. They've also got to pay a fine.
Part of the parade paid homage to all the people who are involved in producing the Carnaval parades, with alas dressed as carpenters, electricians and costume-makers. The entire bateria was dressed as the sweeper guys who sweep the Sambodromo after each parade! Funny. The bateria must have loved this outfit because it was so light and cool. And the rainha of the bateria was dressed as an extremely sexy security guard:



Grande Rio's bateria did a 45-second-long break that is now being called "the longest paradinha ever performed in the Avenida." Shouldn't that be called a paradão?