Exclusive Photos from Rio De Janerio Carnival Wth jaw-dropping parades and a dazzling riot of colour

Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival came to a glittering end last night last night with a mind-blowing evening of sequin-fuelled revelry, blaring music and scantily-clad dancers at the Sambadrome.
Tens of thousands of people gathered on both sides of the imposing venue to watch and sing along as Rio’s famous Samba schools brought the five-day festival to a spectacular close.
But in the midst of the all the glitz and glamour, there was also a more serious note to the proceedings last night, with a call for more racial integration in the South American country.

Exclusive photos below

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Uniao da Ilha samba school led the way with their colourful performance on the second day of the most important carnival parades

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Little was left tot he imagination as
Unidos da Tijuca performed their spectacular routines while parading
through Rio’s iconic Sambadrome

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Elaborate costumes encrusted with
hundres of sequins are par for the course during Carnvial… not to
mention copious amounts of flesh

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A number of Samba schools decided to celebrate the country’s African heritage on the final night of Rio’s world-famous Carnival

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Drum queen Juliana Alves from the Unidos da Tijuca samba school parades made a dramatic entrance during carnival celebrations

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There was also a more serious note to
the proceedings last night, with a call for more racial integration in
the South American country

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The grand finale was awash with thousands of colourful costumes as performers danced and paraded their way down the Sambadrome

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More is more when it comes to the
elaborate costumes at Carnival with many performers weighed down by
hundreds of sequins and feathers

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A number of Rio’s famous Samba groups decided to honor the country’s diverse Afro-Brazilian heritage

Some
Samba groups decided to honor the country’s diverse Afro-Brazilian
heritage, and one even built a giant Nelson Mandela float in a bid to
remind revelers of the African leader’s fight for equality.

Top-tier
samba group Imperatriz Leopoldinense said it was inspired by an
incident of racism in football, when a banana was thrown at Barcelona
star Dani Alves during a match last year against Villarreal.

Brazilian
player Alves ignited a movement against racism in the game after he was
seen cooly picking up the banana and eating it before taking a corner
kick.

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A young girl from Beija-Flor samba school proved age was no barrier as she participates in the samba parade at the Sambadrome

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Young revellers from Beija-Flor samba
school proved they had just as much rhythm as their older counterparts
with their own parade

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It may have been past their bed time, but that didn’t stop these excited children getting in on the Carnival action

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Tens of thousands of people gathered on both sides of the imposing venue to watch and sing along to Rio’s famous Samba schools

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Luckily for revelers and performers the rain held off on Monday night. A torrential downpour soaked party-goers on Sunday night

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The samba schools were competing for the best performance which will be announced later in the week

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The elaborate Carnival floats take
months of careful planning and preparation to create the enormous
masterpieces to take part in the parade

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Anything goes at Rio de Janeiro’s infamous carnival, but these performers were wearing more than most…

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Members of the samba group Uniao da Ilha created a spectacular collage of colourful flowers and butterflies with their costumes

‘People
think that discrimination in Brazil is a thing of the past,’ says Andre
Bonatte, who coordinates cultural affairs for Imperatriz. ‘But we are
here to say it is not like that. There are still many racist displays in
our society.’

Earlier
in the evening, the carnival kicked off with thousands of performers in
fluorescent orange-and-yellow costumes and Halloween-like floats of
tarantullas and Jack the Ripper.

Elsewhere,
Rio’s alcohol-soaked Carnival street parties – known as ‘blocos’ – were
in full swing, with many revelers attending a dedicated ‘Tinder-themed’
party.

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While Carnival exploded in a riot of
colour inside the Sambadrome, hundreds of alcohol-soaked parties lined
the streets of Rio de Janeiro

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Thousands of dedicated performers take
part in the parade and spend hours applying make-up and getting into
the elaborate costumes

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Golden beaks, dazzling blue feathers
and verdant green trees encrusted in glitter brought proceedings to a
spectacular close last night

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Elaborate costumes, not to mention the weird an the wonderful all made an appearance during the grand finale on Monday night

‘People
go crazy during Carnival and everyone hooks up with as many people as
possible,’ said Fernando de Almeida, a 27-year old web designer who was
among several hundred costumed revelers at ‘Match Comigo,’ which
literally translates as ‘match with me.’

Brazilians
are among the top users of Facebook, and the founder of Tinder, a
popular dating app, said in an interview last April that it already had
10 million users in the country.

Luckily,
the rain held off for the final night of the all-night extravaganza. On
Sunday night the skies opened up about an hour ahead of the start of
the parade, drenching revellers and performers and flooding streets
around the arena, Rio’s Mecca of Carnival.

Wildly
costumed performers from six Samba schools packed the Sambadrome, where
tennis ace Rafael Nadal was a star guest of the parade clad in a clear
waterproof poncho.

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A reveller from Portela samba school participates in the carnival samba parade which seemed to celebrate the afterlife

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Sao Clemente samba school also had a somewhat morbid theme, with dancers wearing huge skeleton costumes

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Unidos da Tijuca samba school is one of the most famous and created a colourful display using dancers dressed in LED lights

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One reveller glistened in a spectacular peacock-themed costume for the Unidos da Tijuca parade on the final night

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Members of the samba group Uniao da
Ilha perform on the second day of the most important parades and the
closing day of the festival

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Big blue hair, bikinis and chaps-style
leggings that leave little to the imagination in Viradouro samba
school’s Carnival performance

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The Vila Isabel samba school perform during the spectacular Carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro’s Sambadrome on Sunday

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Model Juliana Paesthe from Viradouro samba school sparkles during their performance as one of Rio’s top-ranked groups

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The Viradouro school opened Sunday night’s parade and transformed the venue into a sea of gold and white

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A lavish feather-winged costume is sported by this dancer from the Salgueiro samba school in the annual carnival parade in Rio

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There was no shortage of skin on show during the most celebrated Carnival celebrations in the world on Sunday

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A giant mould of a woman holds a baby at the front of this extravagant float from the Viradouro samba school

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A child sleeps in a tropical setting on the Mangueira samba school’s float on the first night of the First League parades

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The many shades of Mangueira samba school, who are the oldest of the competing Rio samba schools

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Spectators stand in plastic ponchos or umbrellas as the Viradouro samba school file past at the Sambadrome on Sunday night

Nadal,
in town for the Rio Open tournament, was mobbed by the press during his
20-minute stay at the event where he showed some fancy samba-style
footwork of his own among the performers with Spanish compatriot David
Ferrer and Brazil’s own former French Open winner Gustavo ‘Guga’
Kuerten.

The
year’s five-day-long Carnival celebrations, which also include some 450
alcohol-soaked street parties, or ‘blocos,’ comes as a welcome respite
from the recent avalanche of bad news afflicting Brazil.

Rio

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Incredible detail features in the
costume worn by this dancer from Viradouro samba school, a former
champion of Carnival’s main event

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Casts of male dancers in crisp white suits feature in another of Viradouro’s lavish displays that opened proceedings on Sunday

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From a cocoon in a tree into a beautiful orange and yellow butterfly – another of the vast array of colours from Viradouro

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Even with the skies opening up with
torrential rain about an hour ahead of the start of the all-night
extravaganza, the show went on

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Revellers from Mangueira, Rio’s most popular samba school which won the very first parade to be held in the Sambadrome

‘It
hasn’t dampened the performers’ spirits, and at least it’s not so hot
with the rain,’ said Helio Abreu, a 53-year-old doctor taking shelter
with his wife at a concession stand.

‘I know we need it, but to tell you the truth I really wish it had started on Ash Wednesday,’ the last day of Carnival.

In
Paraty, a colonial jewel of a city between Rio and Sao Paulo, Carnival
was scaled down after a deadly shooting on Saturday night.

One
person was killed and nine others injured, including three tourists
from Sao Paulo, in the shootout which erupted in the midst of a crowd of
revellers in the historic downtown, according to local news reports.

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More colour from the Manguiera as music blared on the fourth of five days of parade competitions in the unique stadium

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Sequins, feathers, glitter, diamantes and skin are all present and accounted for in Mangueira drum queen Evelyn Bastos’s costume

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An American theme is presented in this float from Mocidade samba school, the third school to delight thousands on Sunday

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The schools spend months perfecting their costumes and performances in preparation for Carnival

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Mangueira, second up on Sunday on the first of two nights of shows for the top-rated samba schools

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Vila Isabel drum
queen and Brazilian celebrity Sabrina Sato appears to be enjoying
herself no end during the school’s performance

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A barely there costume is worn by a performer from Vila Isabel, who entered the arena just after midnight

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Vila Isabel perform as part of the
five-day-long official Carnival celebrations, which also include some
450 alcohol-soaked street parties

Six
samba schools were parading in Rio’s Sambadrome on Sunday night, with
each group required to get their thousands of participants and giant
floats across the roughly 730 meter-long runway in under 82 minutes. Six
other schools will perform on Monday, with all 12 groups vying for the
title of the year’s best.

Mangueira and Salgueiro were the biggest-name samba schools parading Sunday.

Last year’s champion, Unidos da Tijuca, is the last parade Monday, with the winning school announced later in the week.

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Brazilian singer Martinho da Vila parades with Vila Isabel – his compositions feature as part of their Carnival performances

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Opulent headdresses add to the vibrant performance from the Salgueiro school at the Sambadrome

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Grande Rio is one of the newer Samba
schools competing this year but has already enjoyed great success and
finished sixth in 2014

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Their theme ‘A Grande Rio é do baralho’ means The Great River is a Desk and plays on the notion that Carnival is a game to many

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Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal
(left) dances during the parade on Sunday with Brazil’s biggest name in
the sport, Gustavo Kuerten

Rio de Janeiro has been host to hundreds of
thousands of revellers for its five-day-long carnival this week. Take a
look at some of the most colourful scenes this year: