Austin’s annual CARNAVAL BRASILEIRO, possibly the city’s longest-lived and legitimately "Austin Weird" event, is gearing up for its 32nd year as Austin’s biggest, best and perhaps most misunderstood party.

Carnaval’s ability to weather the changing times has become even more apparent during a year in which even the deservedly legendary Spamarama has, unfortunately, passed its expiration date.

Carnaval Austin, which has grown into the largest indoor Brazilian Mardi Gras celebration anywhere on the globe, explodes at 9:00 p.m., January 31, 2009 at Austin’s Palmer Events Center, 900 Barton Springs Road.

The irresistible pulse of samba drums, an endless parade of exotic costumes, and the uninhibited euphoria of over 6,000 attendees have established this Brazilian-style festival as one of the most eagerly anticipated blowouts on the area’s social calendar.

With the demise of Spamarama, Carnaval and Eeyore’s Birthday Party remain as the last vestiges of the Austin which earned the city its reputation as a true bohemian party town.

Fueling the festivities, two high energy bands will pump out fiery Brazilian carnaval music. New York’s Grupo Saveiro is making their seventh Austin appearance. Saveiro has performed at countless carnavals up and down the East Coast and is regularly voted the Best Brazilian Band in the USA by the Brazilian Press Association. Individual members have played in the studio and on the road with everyone from Baden Powell and Marvin Gaye to Sun Ra and David Byrne. Veterans of Rio’s famous carnaval parades, these ten Brazilian-born musicians present a mix of traditional rhythms: samba, frevo, marchinha, bloco-afro and much more via their battery of pounding, sensual drums.

Austin’s own traditional Rio-style Samba School, the Acadêmicos da Opera, a locally-based group of 35 drummers and 15 dancers, all in elaborate opera-themed costumes, will be making their fifth Carnaval presentation.  Their up-close and personal performances—in the middle of the dance floor—never fail to captivate and amaze the ecstatic Carnaval throngs.

Now a local institution attracting partygoers from all over the United States, Carnaval Brasileiro began in the early 1970s as a nostalgic dose of their homeland’s legendary festivities for UT’s Brazilian students. After blowing the roof off one downtown club, the party eventually outgrew the long-gone Armadillo World Headquarters, and likewise the City Coliseum before nestling into its present venue. Flamboyant, sometimes risque costumes, the driving Brazilian samba, and the uninhibited, spirited atmosphere have earned Carnaval its reputation as the premier such festivity in the USA. The party has inspired fansites on the Internet, as well as helping cultivate a love of things Brazilian in Central Texas, ranging from music and food to Brazilian martial arts.

A portion of the proceeds from Carnaval will benefit the Austin Sunshine Camp non-profit organization which provides not only free summer camps for Austin at-risk kids, but year-round mentoring and leadership programs.

Tickets will be available online December 15, 2008, and in several local outlets after Christmas.  ($35.00)

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