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  • 2/27/2025
Carnivals officially start on Thursday in the Brazilian city of Recife, but thousands of people are already celebrating the event on the streets. Our correspondent Brian Mier with the details.

#brazil #carnival #news
Transcript
00:00Carnivals officially start on Thursday in the Brazilian city of Recife, but thousands
00:05of people are already celebrating the event on the streets.
00:09Our correspondent Brian Meir with the details.
00:14I'm in Recife on the banks of the Capibaribe River.
00:18Behind me, the famous statue of the Rooster of Dawn, a carnival tradition in this northeastern
00:25Brazilian city that goes back to 1978, a period when the dictatorship was beginning
00:31to fall and the military loosened their regulations on street carnivals.
00:36That was the year that the world's largest carnival block party was founded, the Galo
00:42da Madrugada, the Rooster of Dawn.
00:45Every Saturday of carnival since 1994, this party has been registered as the world's largest
00:52carnival block, with a record crowd appearing there about 10 years ago of 2.2 million people
00:58dancing behind 30 sound trucks with 30 different bands on them.
01:03The rooster itself is a statue that's put up on a main avenue in downtown Recife to
01:08commemorate the carnival bloco.
01:11This year it's 32 meters high, and using the theme of climate change adaptation, it was
01:17made from over 20,000 plastic soft drink bottles that were donated by fans of the Galo.
01:24So it's the last night before carnivals.
01:27As you can see, the crowd is enthusiastic.
01:30The streets are packed with people, entire families coming out, sometimes with small
01:34children who just don't feel comfortable going to such a big party as the Galo bloco itself
01:40during carnival.
01:41Take their kids to see the statue.
01:43It's become part of Recife's tradition.
01:46It's just been put up.
01:48They've had to reroute 120 city bus lines to accommodate the Galo do Madrugada, which
01:54is now officially standing up in the city of Recife the day before carnival starts.
02:00And now we have a short break coming up.

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