Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, the two biggest cities in Brazil, will see in the new year Saturday with colorful festivities for 6 million people, about a third of them on Copacabana Beach.
While Rio de Janeiro will organize 12 celebrations of “Reveillon,” as Brazilians refer to the arrival of the new year, for around 3.8 million revelers, Sao Paulo will entertain 2.2 million with activities Saturday night through Sunday morning.
None of the festivities anywhere will come close in size or glamor to the one at Copacabana, which this year is bringing in some 580,000 tourists, a tenth of them foreigners, who are expected to spend some $420 million.
The Rio de Janeiro mayor’s office estimates that at least two million party animals will crowd the sandy four kilometers (2.5 miles) of Copacabana, Brazil’s celebrity beach.
According to the hotelkeepers association, all the inns and hotels in the southern tourist zone of Rio de Janeiro are packed to the rafters and there is not one room available for the first day of the new year.
Those seeing out 2005 and seeing in 2006 will witness a 16-minute pyrotechnic display shooting off 150 tons of fireworks, plus all-night concerts by a dozen groups and singers on three monstrous stages set up for the occasion.
The fireworks will be set off from eight rafts anchored along 360 miles of coastline.
Starting Saturday afternoon on the three stages erected along Atlantica Avenue, which traces the outer limits of Copacabana Beach, entertainment will be provided by Brazilian musicians and singers including names of international fame like Jorge Aragao, Emilio Santiago and Fernanda Abreu.
Also performing on every stage will be drummers from the famous “samba schools,” the recreational clubs that each year with their music and parades vie for the title of best group in the Rio de Janeiro carnival.
Alongside each stage, giant video screens will allow the performances to be seen from afar, with sound blasting from amplifiers on 16 strategically placed towers.
To increase Copacabana capacity, the authorities asked followers of Afro-Brazilian religions that they make their traditional offerings to the goddess Iemanja on the previous Thursday instead of on New Year’s Eve.
As a result, some 4,000 devotees, attracting the curiosity of thousands of tourists, on Thursday traced little circles in the Copacabana sands where they left flowers, food and drink for the “queen of waters” in a plea for good luck during the coming year.
Despite the change in date of the Afro-Brazilian rituals which normally give a touch of local color to the “Reveillon” festival, those who go to Saturday’s celebrations will wear their white religious garb all the same, since it has become a tradition among tourists as well.
Meanwhile some 7,500 passengers on three international cruise ships will have front row seats for the Copacabana new year’s festivities.
The ships arrived Saturday at the port of Rio de Janeiro and tonight will be anchored right in front of Copacabana beach, at a prudent distance from the eight fireworks rafts.
Rio’s Secretary of Tourism Sergio Ricardo de Almeida said that the tourists on the three cruise ships alone, despite the fact that they pay no hotel bills, nor will they use the city’s services, will leave at least $3 million in Rio de Janeiro.
Besides the “Reveillon” at Copacabana, the city of Rio de Janeiro will organize parties, shows and in some places fireworks in another 11 spots around the city, among them the tourist beaches of Ipanema and Barra de Tijuca, as well as in some poor neighborhoods.
According to mayor’s office estimates, these alternative new year’s festivities will attract some 1.8 million, and will cost close to 4.8 million reales (about $2.1 million).
Sao Paulo, the biggest city in the country, will throw a party in mid-town Paulista Avenue for around 2.2 million people, who will enjoy concerts by 10 bands, a 15-minute fireworks display and a spectacular shower of metallic confetti.
