Venue
Passarela do Samba Professor Darcy Ribeiro – Sambódromo
Rua Marquês de Sapucaí, s/n – Praça Onze – Cidade Nova.

SAMBA SCHOOLS IN THE SPECIAL GROUP
      The parade, high point of carnaval, takes place on a Sunday and a Monday, with seven schools each time.
The schools belonging to this group, affiliated to the Liga Independente das Escolas de Samaba do Rio de Janeiro, are specially magnificent and sumptuous, each containing approximately five thousand participants plus celebrated Brazilian show-business and jet-set personalities.

*A* GROUP SAMBA SCHOOLS
      These schools, affiliated to the Associação das Escolas de Samba da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro, form the Grupo de Acesso.
They are 10 large and important schools that thrillingly and beautifully parade on the Saturday with their plots narrated through their samba, costumes and allegoric cars. The champion of this parade ascends to the Special Group.

*B* GROUP SAMBA SCHOOLS
     They are also called base groups, as they are the popular bases from which the big schools originated. Small, each school having approximately one thousand and five hundred participants, they nevertheless parade with much vigor to defend their carnival.

CHAMPIONS’ SATURDAY
     On the Saturday after carnaval, the Samba Schools winners of the Special Group, from Sunday and Monday, parade in all their splendor.

JUNIOR SAMBA SCHOOLS
     These are branches of the big schools constituted by children of each community.
Their parade, on the Friday before carnival, follows the procedure of the big schools.