*Frevo clubs in Olinda attract thousands of revelers in all carnivals
*Frevo attracts record-breaking crowds 130 years after its debut
*Frevo attracts record-breaking crowds 130 years after its debut
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00:00March 4th was Fatih's day in Brazil, the final day of Carnival,
00:04and here's a correspondent by a mirror with a deeper look at the music
00:07behind Olinda's legendary Carnival parades.
00:13Frevo, the dance music genre central to Carnival in Pernambuco, emerged in the late 19th century
00:19when former slaves migrated to Recife's port area for work, bringing traditional
00:25Afro-Brazilian drums with them. In barroom jam sessions with local military band musicians,
00:30they fused their drum rhythms with the popular polka music of the era. Dancers incorporated
00:36moves from capoeira, the then-outlawed Afro-Brazilian martial art, resulting in
00:41a Carnival sensation that thrives to this day. Frevo is an improvisational framework
00:51that was developed here in Pernambuco, but it also has a long tradition of bringing parody
00:58into Carnival, authentic parody, especially of power relations and organized religion.
01:04One of the largest and most traditional Frevo clubs in Olinda is Pitombeira, which was founded
01:09by a group of friends in 1947 when they decided to joke around by dancing on the streets with
01:14branches from a pitombeira tree. The joke caught on and by the 1960s, the group was already
01:20attracting tens of thousands of revelers in Olinda every Carnival. Frevo is the soul of the
01:31people of Olinda. Frevo represents all of the happiness and cultural diversity here in Olinda.
01:38Frevo is the root of Carnival. It's where Carnival started from and it's where it gets its power to
01:44exist and shine and play around the way it does today. The only reason our Carnival is so grand
01:50is because of Frevo. 130 years after its debut in Pernambuco's Carnival, Frevo is attracting
01:57record-breaking crowds. Groups like Pitombeira play a vital role in preserving this tradition
02:03by engaging young people, ensuring Frevo remains a vibrant force in the life of Olinda's working class.
02:10Our traditions of the standard bearer, the Carnival dancers, the giant puppets are part of the culture of Olinda.
02:18This is why we always preserve them and always bring our parties to the streets.
02:29In a world of fleeting fads that appear and vanish overnight,
02:33Frevo looks like it's here to stay. Brian Muir, Telesur, Olinda.