Party like it's 1919? Rio hopes for Carnival comeback

The sequins are swirling, the bass drums are booming: after being canceled by Covid-19, carnival is back -- at least at Rio de Janeiro's samba schools, which hope to put on the party of the century in three months' time.

The iconic Brazilian beach city's elite samba schools have started holding rehearsals again, hoping authorities will let carnival festivities go ahead from February 25 to March 1.

The schools want 2022's comeback carnival to be the biggest since 1919, the year Rio residents joyfully reembraced life after the devastation of another pandemic, the Spanish flu.

That carnival has gone down in history as one of the all-time legendary parties.

Now, the situation looks similar. After canceling carnival this year because of Covid-19, authorities say a recent plunge in cases could make next year's edition possible.

The reigning champions of Rio's carnival parade competition, the Viradouro samba school, even chose the 1919 carnival as the theme of their comeback parade.

At a recent rehearsal, school members hugged joyfully on the dance floor and belted out the music, mostly without face masks.

As the school's "drum-corps queen" shimmied in a  gold-fringed miniskirt, the veteran head of the drummers, Moacyr da Silva Pinto, led some 50 percussionists through a booming rehearsal, a loud whistle around his neck.

"We're going to have the greatest carnival since 1919," said Pinto, a spry 65-year-old.

"In Rio de Janeiro, samba is enmeshed in our lives, just like football and the beach."

Attendance at the rehearsal was restricted because of Covid-19. But that did not dampen the mood.

"This is a cry of freedom, of coming home," said 35-year-old Leonina Gabriel.

"It's infinite happiness: we can take off our masks, we're vaccinated."