Banda de Ipanema's third parade of the year, on Carnival Tuesday, was possibly the most fun of them all. It's the last official day of Carnival, and people are ready to party till they drop... There's also an extra "glamour" factor. Later at night there's the Gay Costume Ball at Scala. Everybody has to look their best, as the ball is televised to the whole country. You will see at the Banda many of the same characters that will be on TV.

The spirit of Carnival lingers on, though. On Saturday (March 4th) the Winners Parade will happen at the Sambodrome. On Sunday (March 5th) Monobloco starts marching in Leblon at 9 a.m. The parade changed hours - it originally started at 5 p.m. The reason is that the number of people following the bloco became so big that the party only ended around midnight, to the dismay of residents trying to get a good night's sleep

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Please click on picture to enlarge it.