Rio Carnival Parade Tickets

Imperio Serrano Samba School group


Rio Carnival Parade Tickets

All information about Rio Carnival Parade tickets for the 2010 Rio Carnival Parade in the Sambodromo.

Buy your Rio Carnival Parade tickets here

The Rio Carnival Parade or Samba Parade is undoubtedly the highlight of the Rio Carnival, a totally unique event in the world. It is something everybody has to experience at least once in life.

The Rio Carnival Parade is however not a street style party, where people just move about as they like but rather a highly orchestrated show of vast proportions. Thus it is not free. However Rio Carnival Parade tickets are definitely worth the money. You will see (and probably dance to) a show you have never seen before. The Rio Carnival Parade is often referred to as the biggest Show on Earth.

The venue of the Rio Carnival Parade, the Sambodromo, is quite small and can only seat around 70,000 people. The demand for Rio Carnival Parade tickets is, obviously, significantly bigger as it is one of the most interesting and well-known events in the world. Lots of visitors from all over the globe arrive every year, just to see and experience it at least once in life. At the same time, all Brazilians and Rio citizens want to see it as often as possible. Thus you should buy your Rio Carnival Parade tickets well in advance not to get disappointed. Do not leave it to the last minute as tickets sell out and prices increase with time.

Grande Rio Samba School float detail

Rio Carnival Parade Tickets Description

All Rio Carnival Parade tickets are valid for one night only and are for a specific sector. You should decide for the day, seat type and sector.

You can buy tickets for any of the Rio Carnival Parade nights separately. The most important nights are Carnival Sunday and Monday, which are similar in terms of set-up. 6 of the best 12 Samba Schools (the Special Group) march each day.

We suggest watching the Parade either on Sunday or Monday and participating with costume parading with a real school on Satruday February 13.

On Champion´s Saturday, the best samba schools parade once again. It is significantly more quite and tickets are much cheaper.

For deciding on the sector of your Rio Carnival Parade tickets, you can study the description of the Sambodromo with the sectors' map.

Tickets consist of two parts which are only valid together. One part, with a magnetic stripe, will be retained at the first gate to the Sambodromo. The remaining part, which you can put around your neck with the supplied string, is for your sector entrance. After you have checked into the Sambodromo with your magnetic card, you can come and go out of your sector as many times as you like and walk around within the Sambodromo but you can enter only your own sector.

In emergency or with special needs, you can agree with the Coordinator of your sector to leave the Sambodromo and return later that night.

Although tickets are allocated very early by the authorities they only issues vouchers to all agencies and applicants. These vouchers can be exchanged by the agents for the actual magnetic tickets only one week before Carnival, for security reasons and to avoid fraud. Thus tickets cannot be sent out before nevertheless they can be delivered within Rio after they come into existence.

Come to Carnival in Rio de Janeiro to see and experience
the Rio Carnival Parade in the Sambodromo yourself

Seat types

There are two types of seats: grand stand seats and numbered seats.

Grand stand seats (bleachers) offer free seating with no allocated seats. You can get as high and will sit wherever you want and can. Grandstands for sector 9 - the tourist sector - are the only numbered on the grandstands type of tickrets.

Allocated/numbered seats are either in boxes or there are numbered chairs. All seats in sector 9 (the tourist sector) are also numbered.

Unidos da Tijuca Samba School at the Sambadromo

The numbered chairs are right on the samba run-way at Apotheosis Square, placed on steps for good viewing, in front of sectors 6 and 13. All of them are allocated and only the person with the right ticket can take them. These tickets are always cheaper, so if you want to make sure you have a chair and don't want to pay the price for an open box seat, go with the "allocated" chair.

Boxes are covered or open.

The open boxes (so called "frisa") offer better value, are right on the samba run-way, in front of sector 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 11. Each open box seats 6 people and has a little coffee table and is as close to the run-way as it gets. Those are our preferred tickets for those who want to watch the parade with comfort without breaking the bank.

Covered boxes are the most expensive. The best ones are in the sector 2 building, on 3 floors (A, B and C-being the top floor). They hold 12 people. There are more covered boxes in between sectors 3, 5, 7 and 9 holding up to 20 spectators in A Boxes and 18 in B Boxes.

Mocidade Samba School float detail

Covered Box Etiquette

Proper behavior will make for an enjoyable show parade. So, for yours and everybody’s else convenience and comfort, we would like you to consider some rules when booking a covered box ticket, listed as "luxury suite" on our ticket form.

- Smoking is strictly forbidden in the Luxury Suites. There are smoking areas located nearby.
-Proper behavior will make for an enjoyable show parade.  Be courteous and kind with the other guests.
- Even though the suites accommodate 12 people, the windows to the show aren’t big enough to accommodate 12 people watching the parade at the same time. Therefore, we kindly ask everybody to be courteous with each other and share the space so everyone can enjoy the show.  It’s a lounge area. We suggest everyone to take turns at the bar in the back,  with the window to ensure everyone has a great time.
- Please keep your VIP tickets until the parade is over.
- You will receive a nice t-shirt with  your ticket. Please use it so you can be easily recognized by our staff.
- Each box will count with a bartender, a waiter and one of our English-speaking representatives. He or She will assist you with any special requests you may have.

Ticket Prices

Tickets are priced differently by the individual agents after the central allocation, reflecting their pricing policy. Agencies who source tickets from the central allocation charge less. Agencies using other intermediaries will charge more.

Sector 9 is called the tourist sector to justify the considerably higher price than all neighboring sectors. Even though it's the most qualified sector to handle tourists, as you can imagine, you might feel there quite isolated from the Brazilians and the "party". If you want to mix with Brazilians, you will be better of in the boxes in front of Sector 4 for the same price and VIP seating. For us, in fact, Sector 4 open boxes represent the best value among the VIP seating options.

Price differences between the sectors reflect what the market thinks about the view of the Parade from that particular section of the parading avenue.

Recommendations The drummers of every school stop, perform and play in the drummers’ niche where the atmosphere is the most intense and at its highest. The open boxes in front of Sector 4 are located just opposite, offering the best view of them. Sector 11 is being one of the best grand stands as it is next to them with excellent acoustics.
Sector 5 is right in the middle of the Avenue, offering ideal views from the front and back of the Parade.
Sector 7 has one of the best locations and is more up-scale with most judges and better-off people.

Salgueiro Samba School float at the Sambadromo

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Parade tickets