One of the important early forms of Carnival in colonial Brazil was Entrudo, a festive practice with Portuguese roots. It commonly involved playful confrontations using water and other materials.

Entrudo could be lively and disruptive. Authorities and socially influential groups increasingly objected to aspects of these public celebrations. Their attempts to regulate Carnival helped create a distinction between street festivities and more controlled entertainments.

Entrudo was not the same as the samba-centered Carnival familiar today. There were no modern samba-school championships, no purpose-built parade avenue and no unified Carnival programme.

During the 19th century, masked balls, organized outings and elaborate costumed processions became important parts of Rio’s Carnival culture.

In 1855, the Congresso das Sumidades Carnavalescas held an influential organized Carnival procession. It became an important landmark in the development of the grandes sociedades, or large Carnival societies.

These organizations were often associated with the city’s more affluent social groups. Their elaborate costumes, carriages and public displays differed from celebrations organized by working-class and Afro-Brazilian communities.

The contrast reflected the social divisions of the period. Carnival was a shared urban occasion, but participation, public visibility and access to resources were far from equal.

Popular Carnival associations developed alongside the grandes sociedades. These included ranchos, cordões and early neighborhood Carnival groups.

Ranchos were particularly important because they introduced organized processions with distinctive music, costumes, banners and group roles. Their structures influenced the later development of samba-school presentations.

Hilário Jovino Ferreira, a musician with connections to Bahia, is associated with the creation of the Reis de Ouro rancho in 1894. His contribution illustrates how cultural traditions moved between Brazilian regions and were transformed in Rio.

The modern samba-school parade did not simply replace every earlier Carnival form. It inherited and adapted elements from these different public celebrations.

The modern samba-school movement began taking recognizable shape during the 1920s. Neighborhood musicians and Carnival groups developed organizations that combined music, local identity and coordinated public performance.

The Estácio neighborhood played an especially important role in the transformation of samba’s rhythm. Musicians associated with Estácio developed a more processional style, better suited to groups singing and moving together.

Figures associated with these developments included Ismael Silva, Bide and Nilton Bastos, among others. Their musical innovations helped establish a rhythmic approach that would become fundamental to samba-school parades.

Deixa Falar, founded in Estácio in 1928, is frequently recognized as the pioneering samba school.

Historians distinguish that important pioneering role from the question of whether any one organization was absolutely the first group ever to use the term escola de samba.

Other Carnival associations already existed and contributed to the movement’s development. The formation of samba schools was a gradual process rather than the result of one isolated event.

The expression “samba school” refers to an organization that cultivates and presents samba traditions. It does not mean the same thing as a conventional school offering dance classes.

The development of Portela in the Oswaldo Cruz and Madureira area, and Estação Primeira de Mangueira in the Mangueira community, illustrates how samba-school identity became closely tied to neighborhoods and supporters.

Portela traces its origins to 1923, while Mangueira was founded in 1928. Both would become major institutions in the history of competitive Carnival.

Over time, the schools established recognizable colors, emblems, musical traditions and networks of members and supporters.

Their significance extended beyond winning competitions. They became enduring cultural organizations through which communities expressed belonging, memory and identity.

The first samba-school performances were much smaller than modern Sambadrome productions. They developed from neighborhood processions into increasingly structured events with judges, rankings and defined performance requirements.

In 1932, the newspaper Mundo Sportivo, directed by Mário Filho, organized a competitive samba-school parade at Praça Onze. Mangueira won the contest.

The success of these early events encouraged further competitions. Municipal support from 1935 contributed to the schools’ growing recognition as an important part of Rio’s Carnival.

Early parades were relatively short, and their songs, costumes and visual elements were not always coordinated around one detailed story.

Over subsequent decades, the connection between the enredo (parade theme), samba-enredo (thematic samba song) and visual presentation became increasingly important.

A modern samba-school production depends on several connected elements: musical performance, choreography, costume construction, allegorical floats and disciplined movement along the avenue.

The modern visual language of Carnival owes much to generations of artists, craftsmen and creative directors working alongside samba communities.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Salgueiro became especially influential in developing an innovative artistic approach. Figures such as Fernando Pamplona helped transform the thematic and visual possibilities of the parade.

This included greater attention to subjects drawn from African and Afro-Brazilian history, challenging the dominance of more conventional historical narratives.

Later designers continued expanding the scale and sophistication of the parade, turning its visual presentation into an increasingly important artistic field.

Street Carnival is not a recent alternative to the Sambadrome. Public street festivities existed long before samba schools, although their forms, scale and organization have changed repeatedly.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Carnival included popular processions, cordões, ranchos, bands and neighborhood associations.

Some organizations survived for many decades, adapting their traditions to a changing city.

Cordão da Bola Preta, founded in 1918, remains one of Rio’s best-known historic Carnival groups. Banda de Ipanema, founded in 1965, became another important symbol of Rio’s street celebrations.

While the competitive samba-school parades gained enormous visibility during the 20th century, street festivities continued to evolve in parallel.

From the late 20th century into the 2000s, Rio experienced major growth in street-Carnival activity, with new and revitalized bands and blocos occupying public spaces.

This expansion introduced new musical approaches while reconnecting audiences with older Carnival practices.

It also created practical challenges involving crowd management, transport, authorization and the use of public streets.

Modern Rio Carnival combines historic cultural traditions with increasingly complex artistic production, media coverage, international tourism and citywide event organization.

The competitive parades involve extensive preparation long before the Carnival period. Samba schools organize musical competitions, community rehearsals and major costume and float production.

Meanwhile, street Carnival has expanded into a broad programme of neighborhood gatherings, traditional blocos and major public events.

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how significantly Carnival can be affected by wider events. The usual 2021 celebrations were disrupted, and the 2022 samba-school competitions took place in April rather than the ordinary pre-Lenten period.

The regular street-bloco programme was not held in 2022. The return of Carnival activity in subsequent years became an important chapter in the festival’s recent history.

Today, Carnival continues to balance artistic ambition, community identity, public celebration, economic pressures and the practical demands of hosting large numbers of visitors.

Its history is therefore not complete. Each new generation of composers, performers and organizers contributes to the changing character of the celebration.