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Brazil's street Carnival band
draws 10,000 revelers
Street party band "Cordao do
Boitata" brought 10,000 fans
onto the streets of Rio de
Janeiro Sunday morning, as part
of the traditional Carnival
celebrations that kicked off
across Brazil this weekend.
The crowd of supporters danced
and sang in the streets
surrounding the Nov. 15 Plaza,
in the center of the city.
Blocos, as the neighborhood
groups are known, have an
11-year tradition of holding a
rally for fans in the early
hours of the day, shortly after
the parade of samba schools in
the city's Sambadrome stadium.
Many go directly from one to the
other.
Cordao, founded in 1918, is a
family-oriented band with
high-quality music.
The Cordao rally was followed by
a large number of straight male
fans dressed as women in wigs,
costumes and makeup. Gay
transvestites preferred another
dance band "Simpatia es casi
Amor."
The city's police said that
90,000 people paraded along the
Ipanema Coast road Saturday
night, much less than the
300,000 expected, partly due to
fears for street violence.
Many of the revelers have black
ribbons sewn into their
costumes, a sign of mourning for
a child murdered by robbers just
a week before the Carnival.
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