A Night In Rio!

Rio de Janeiro’s Carnaval unites travellers and revellers for a celebration like no other. ANNA HART packs her ball gown for the world’s biggest party.

- Anna Hart

Sometimes we travel to escape other people. Sometimes we travel to feel bang in the middle of things. At the start of the year, depleted after a particularly gruelling work project, I hit upon the perfect prescription for my next trip: I needed a party. And not just any party. One of the most glamorous, hedonistic and iconic celebrations on the planet: Rio de Janeiro’s annual Carnaval. If this didn’t help me get my mojo back, nothing would.

By stealing myself away to Rio, I was putting myself in the hands of the party pros. The first carnival in Rio took place in 1723, a relatively civilised date dreamed up as one final chance to gorge before the 40 frugal days of Lent began. (The word “carnaval” is derived from the Latin carne vale, “farewell to the meat”.) Brazilians, true to form, dedicated themselves to this final blowout so seriously that the Rio Carnaval steadily swelled into its modern-day incarnation, a six-day bacchanal that daily brings two million revellers to the streets of Rio. There is no bigger carnival on the planet. And there’s no more democratic celebration, with festivities running the gamut from opulent balls to gritty block parties.