The Carnival of São Paulo () is a major Brazilian Carnival. It features a parade of samba schools and takes place in the Anhembi Sambadrome of São Paulo on the Friday and Saturday night of the week of Carnival. It is currently considered one of Brazil's biggest and most important popular events and is recognized as Cultural Heritage of Brazil and Intangible Heritage of the state by the Council for the Defense of Historical, Archaeological, Artistic and Tourist Heritage (CONDEPHAAT).
Carnival celebrations and the samba itself in São Paulo are slightly different from the Carnival in the city of Rio de Janeiro, though there is a clear difference in the rhythm of the sound – in other words, the speed and tempo of the music. Samba artists from São Paulo were accustomed to difficult lives on the coffee plantations and migrated to the city in search of labour work. The São Paulo author and journalist Plínio Marcos called São Paulo's samba "the samba of work, hardship, drawn to the drumming", which contrasted greatly with the lyricism and cadence of carioca samba from Rio de Janeiro. In addition, São Paulo samba was decisively influenced by other strongly percussive rhythms, such as jongo-macumba, also known as Caxambú. From that time dates the beginning of the relationship between Carnival and the law: the police repression suffered by samba performers, carried out harshly and without criteria. Samba performers, not only during Carnival but throughout the year, were seen as marginal figures and were harshly persecuted by the authorities. On the marginalized outskirts of a São Paulo under construction, the sound of percussion announced an immigrant culture that would later influence Brazilian culture in a definitive way.
History The origins of Carnival stem from a game from the 15th century in which people would throw water and other liquids at each other. Since then, it has evolved and taken different forms in the various places it has spread to. São Paulo was heavily influenced by the people who migrated from the countryside to the city, as well as by the context of the coffee sector crisis.3 Therefore, the population of São Paulo was the result of the rural exodus caused by the coffee crisis that triggered the beginning of the São Paulo Carnival.
In 1885, the first intervention of the Municipal Government of São Paulo in Carnival occurred, promoting the first carnival parade of the cordões that existed at the time. The cordões for a long time defined the musicality of the working-class population of São Paulo, and it was within them that São Paulo samba developed. However, the carnival manifestations of the less affluent classes, with strong Black influence, were practically ignored by the major press of the time, as well as by the public authorities, which sometimes repressed them extensively.
In 1914, the Cordão da Barra Funda was created by Dionísio Barbosa, this cordão being an ancestor of .Jornal USP ano XXII no.790 He lived in Rio de Janeiro, where he had contact with military bands and carnival groups that were popular in the 20th century, but the São Paulo carnival cordões displayed peculiar characteristics. At the front of the cordões came the Baliza, a character responsible for performing juggling with batons to open the way for the other members to pass, and who also defended the group's banner. The musical characteristics were the batucada, responsible for the rhythm and performed through percussion and wind instruments, highlighting the bass drum, and the choro, responsible for melodic and harmonic accompaniment; there were also string instruments. Other groups later stood out such as Geraldinos, Mocidade do Lavapés, Ruggerone and Campos Elyseos, the largest in the city at that time.
1930s In 1933 the Taça Arthur Friendenreich was instituted by the Frente Negra Brasileira, with the aim of valuing associations of African roots, which were mainly related to the rhythmic-musical characteristics and choreographies of samba, which until then were excluded from official contests. Participating were the Cordão da Barra Funda, Bloco do Boi, Cordão das Bahianas and Bloco da Mocidade. In 1934 the same competition was held again, being won by Vae-Vae.
Thanks to the influence of Rádio Nacional, which had begun broadcasting the carnival parades of Rio, Primeira de São Paulo emerged in 1935, considered the first samba school in the capital of São Paulo. In that year, associations of a more popular character were included in the official Carnival of the Municipality of São Paulo, which began to offer venue, stands, infrastructure, as well as support and officialize championships through the Conselho dos Festejos Populares, Recreações e Divertimentos da Cidade, or through federations. At that time there was still no clear differentiation in São Paulo between cordões, carnival blocks (blocos) and samba schools, which paraded competing in the same contest.
At that time there already existed the ranchos Mimosa, Príncipe Negro and Diamante Negro; the Cordões: Ruggerone, Campos Elyseos, Geraldinos, Baianas Paulista Marujos Paulistas, Vai-Vai, Cordão Camisas Verdes, Maricota, A.A. Bom Retiro, 13 de Maio, Sabratino, Barra Funda and Flor da Mocidade; the Blocos: Artistas de Cor, Caprichosos de São Paulo, 11 Irmãos Patriotas, Nossa Vida é Um Mistério, Enxada, Moderado and Roma; and the Samba Schools: Primeira de São Paulo, Desprezados da Penha, Grupo Regional Vim do Sertão and Mocidade do Lavapés. The parades began at Largo São Bento, went down Rua Libero Badaró and ended at Praça Patriarca or at Largo do São Bento, still in a rather informal way, where the schools, ranchos and cordões performed on a platform, with a judging table, and there sang marchinhas and presented their costumes. The champion was Mocidade do Lavapés and the runner-up was Desprezados da Penha.
1940s and 1950s The 1940s are marked by the affirmation of Blocos, Cordões and Schools. Other participants gathered in Largo da Banana (where the Memorial da América Latina currently stands), where between dances, capoeira kicks and card games, a very strong movement of São Paulo samba began to form in that space. In the East Zone of São Paulo, in the old Largo da Penha (where the Church of Penha is located), a movement very similar to that of Largo da Banana also emerged, with the poor Blacks and whites of the region. Even with about four samba schools active in São Paulo, the parades in Rio de Janeiro began to be publicized throughout Brazil, which ended up fostering and attracting the interest of the population of the city of São Paulo, which began to adopt and embrace the parades of the capital.
In 1940 the E.S. Preto e Branco was founded, and the association E.S. Henrique Dias was also created, which had Aparecido Durval de Oliveira as president; the school had its headquarters at Rua São Joaquim nº129, in the city center. During this period, the columnist of Folha da Manhã "Lord Charuto" also gained prominence, writing articles about São Paulo samba in the newspaper, in addition to the carnival institutions, pointing out the favorites and visiting neighborhoods where parades, processions and dances in general were held. In 1941 the first Grito de Carnaval was created, a partnership of the former clube Roxy with Primeira de São Paulo at the head of the festivities, thus taking place the first participation of a samba school in an entertainment show; the event was broadcast by Rádio Record throughout the country, also being the first transmission of a school from São Paulo throughout the national territory.
During the pre-carnival the first competition of Samba Schools, Blocos and Cordões took place, on 16 February, held in honor of Folha da Manhã (current Folha de S.Paulo); the parade was held in Largo do Arouche, in the República district.
The parade was broadcast to the entire capital and Greater São Paulo by the former . Another curious fact that marked the pre-carnival that day was the competition of the 1940 champion of the Rio Carnival, Portela, which came to São Paulo to dispute a kind of Rio-SP contest of samba schools.
The school União de Filme Brasil tied, achieving a high result for the school up to that moment. The Carnival of São Paulo achieved a result while competing with Portela, a champion of the period.
The Carnaval do Povo (as the municipal contest was called) held several tournaments, together with radios and the city's press, held in the district of Bixiga; in addition to the contest, the day before there was a tiebreaker between Filme do Brasil and Portela, and there was turmoil due to the enormous repercussion and supporters who went to Casa do Ator to watch; according to news reports, about 5000 people attended.
In 1941 the most valuable tournament was the one held in "Cidade Folia", where Rádio São Paulo and the C.C.R-SP (Clube dos Cronistas Radiofônicos de São Paulo), together with the FEPSC (Federação das Pequenas Sociedades Carnavalescas), organized it with full coverage. Thus, in 1941 the true champion of the São Paulo Carnival was the bloco of Clube Ruggerone, composed of Italian and white workers from Lapa.
The Carnival of 1942 had its first stirrings at the beginning of February; on the 6th the "Primeira Batalha de Conffetti" took place, a tournament held by the CPCC and the Municipality with its "Carnaval do Povo", at Praça Fernando Prestes.
At the beginning of the decade, the Carnival of São Paulo was small, and the school that stood out most was Lavapés.
1960s During the 1960s several associations showed growth, with great prominence in the São Paulo scene for Unidos do Morro de Vila Maria (today ) and Unidos do Morro da Casa Verde (today ), presided over by Xangô and Zezinho do Banjo respectively.
In mid-1967 the then mayor José Vicente Faria Lima (a native of Rio de Janeiro, born in Vila Isabel and an admirer of samba) regularized the parades on Avenida São João, and in 1968 officially established the festival by signing Law No. 7.100/67, intended to regulate the promotion of Carnival by the Municipal Government of São Paulo, and regulated by Decree No. 7.663/68.
This law, together with the creation of the Secretariat of Tourism and Promotion and the activities promoted by it, was part of a context of expansion of the cultural action of the municipality.
The enactment of the aforementioned law began the phenomenon called the "officialization of Carnival". Although apparently well intentioned, the action of the municipal government proved disastrous from a cultural point of view. This was because, although the sole paragraph of article 1 of the law stipulated several public investments in infrastructure to accommodate festivities at various points of the city, in addition to establishing funds and prizes, in practice the resources were destined solely to organize the parade of the Samba Schools, decreeing, through lack of incentive and resources, the end of the cordões and the link of the São Paulo Carnival with its cultural roots, institutionalizing the São Paulo Carnival.
1970s