Madeira - Day 28 - Feathers and Bare Bottoms, Carnival

I'm not sure of the bus schedule over the next few days with Carnival and school holidays, so did a major grocery shop this morning.

Even the market

was dressed for Carnival.

After a leisurely day on the terrace I headed back downtown as the sun was setting.

Portable food booths were taking advantage of the crowds.

I've had no reason to be out at night so was seeing the festive lights along the sea front, lit up, for the first time.

People already lined the barricades, some with chairs and blankets.

The parade was scheduled to start at 8 and it was 7:20 so I stopped at Sunny Bar and had a glass of wine and chatted to an English couple at the table next to me. He had a sister living in Guelph. This was their 4th time to Madeira and they said it would take the parade at least an hour to get this far and we would hear the loud music long before it reached us.

Lights decorating the harbour. I wandered back the way I had come and found a spot behind a young family where I could see the route over the children's heads.

It was about 9 before the first float came into view.

At this point I have to apologize for the pictures. My camera really could not handle the low light levels and the constant motion, so most of them look like an impressionist painting. For those of you who can see the videos, you will get a much better idea from them. You will also get the noise level. My ears are still ringing.

The floats were interspersed with bands and dance troupes.

Costumes were heavy on glitter and feathers

and the dance troupes were large and had been dancing down the street for an hour by the time they got to me.

Sometimes the spectators clapped and sang along with the music.

Not all the costumes showed bare bums (but most did)

There you go Heather; every parade has to have a clown.

The top part of the costumes were often pretty revealing too.

According to the brochure approximately 1900 performers were in the parade and each group had a theme.

One float had a jungle theme and another troupe were dressed as Mayans (I think) but the themes of the rest were lost on me.

Perhaps "Red Hat Ladies"?

It was really just about wearing awesome costumes and dancing down the street to loud music, in front of your friends and family (and the tourists)

I think I saw about 6 floats. There were 10 in total but I left before the end

I did try taking photos on the "sports" setting of the camera to try and get a faster shutter speed.

This meant that the camera also used the flash and I was concerned about how long the battery would last especially with the amount of video I had taken.

The photos didn't have the same life to them.

The crazy swirls of colour and glitter are a much better representation of the experience.

I started home at about 10:30, tired of the noise and the crowds, and was lucky enough to be able to catch a bus up the hill.
 I just checked and the 2019 Madeira Carnival is not yet up on YouTube but previous ones are and they look pretty much the same.