In order to embrace the Brazilian Carnaval culture, we decided to go to a bloco.

A bloco is a kind of street carnival dedicated to Carnaval and there are a number that occur pre-carnaval in Sao Paulo. The idea is to get the population excited for the upcoming Carnaval celebrations through music, costumes, dance and drinks. The bloco we targeted was Bloco Vai Quem Quer, not in the street, but at the Teatro Vento Forte in Parque Municipal Mario Pimenta. The flyer stated it was to begin at 14hrs (2pm). We had lunch with friends and arrived at about 4:30pm.

Here is the flyer for the event:

And here is what was taking place when we arrived:

We asked some members of the audience (my husband and daughter included in the audience photo):

…what time the music and show was supposed to start. They told us 4pm (again, we…