We're not event managers. We're defending our right to culture.
In São Paulo, a city of nearly 800 street carnival blocks and deep popular tradition, the question of when and whether to celebrate has become a mirror for a deeper tension: who holds the right to define public culture, and who bears the cost of sustaining it. Municipal authorities, citing logistical constraints, proposed moving the beloved Tiradentes-season parades to June's Corpus Christi holiday, while block organizers — representing grassroots cultural groups with limited means — refused the delay and prepared to take to the streets with or without official sanction. What began as a scheduling dispute has revealed a fault line between institutional caution and the irreducible human need to gather, celebrate, and be seen.
- Roughly sixty carnival blocks are preparing to parade during the Tiradentes holiday regardless of municipal approval, turning a bureaucratic impasse into a potential public safety crisis.
- A Friday night meeting between four city secretaries and block representatives collapsed without agreement, with organizers leaving holding protest signs and the city leaving with its position unchanged.
- Block leaders argue the city bears the constitutional and moral responsibility to provide police, medical, and traffic infrastructure — and that shifting those costs onto volunteer cultural groups is both unjust and unworkable.
- The city counters that ten days is genuinely insufficient to run bidding processes, deploy emergency services, and coordinate simultaneous parades across a metropolis — but has offered no alternative for April.
- If the city refuses permits and blocks parade anyway, São Paulo faces unsanctioned street events without coordinated safety coverage — a scenario that could endanger the very communities the administration claims to be protecting.
São Paulo's municipal government and its street carnival organizers arrived at a standoff on a Friday evening, with no resolution in sight. Culture Secretary Aline Torres proposed moving the traditional Tiradentes-season parades to June's Corpus Christi holiday, arguing that ten days was simply not enough time to organize the bidding processes, police deployments, ambulances, and traffic rerouting that large simultaneous parades require. The blocks — representing roughly sixty groups among the city's 800 — rejected the proposal outright and announced they would parade in April regardless.
The conflict had roots in January, when the city canceled street carnival as omicron cases surged. About 250 blocks had already chosen not to parade. But as hospitalizations fell, sentiment shifted. Six major block organizations released a public letter in early April demanding the right to celebrate, pointing out that sports events, music festivals, and the Sambadrome had all been cleared to proceed.
Mayor Ricardo Nunes initially suggested blocks could parade if they covered their own infrastructure and security costs — a proposal that drew immediate pushback. Lira Alli, of the Arrastão dos Blocos collective, was direct: blocks are cultural organizations, not event management companies. Providing police support, traffic control, and medical stations is the state's responsibility. Blocks provide the culture.
When the two sides met at the São Paulo Cultural Center, the conversation deteriorated. Four secretaries presented the city's position; the blocks experienced it as inflexible. Organizers left with protest signs. The city left unmoved.
The following day, Torres offered a partial olive branch: a new program contracting at least 300 small street groups for performances at municipal cultural centers, paying up to 5,700 reais each. But this did not address the core demand — the right to parade in April, in the streets, as tradition holds.
Organizers also raised a procedural grievance: the city never consulted them before canceling carnival in January. Thaís Haliski, of the Street Carnival Women's Commission, noted that samba schools were engaged in dialogue about postponement, while blocks simply received a decision. 'The city said the whole time it wanted to talk,' she said, 'but the posture was always intransigent.'
Now the city faces a dilemma with no clean exit. Grant permission and scramble to organize in days. Or refuse — and risk sixty unsanctioned parades filling streets without police coordination, without ambulances, without the infrastructure that keeps celebration from becoming catastrophe.
São Paulo's municipal government and the city's street carnival organizers reached an impasse on Friday evening with no agreement in sight. The city's culture secretary, Aline Torres, wants to push the street carnival to June, specifically to the Corpus Christi holiday, arguing there simply isn't enough time to organize the event properly in April. The block organizers, representing roughly sixty groups, say they intend to parade anyway during the Tiradentes holiday between April 21 and 24, with or without the city's blessing.
The conflict traces back to January, when the city canceled street carnival entirely as Covid-19 cases surged with the omicron variant. At that time, about 250 blocks announced they wouldn't parade regardless of what the city decided. But as case numbers fell and hospitalizations dropped, sentiment shifted. Six organizations representing the majority of São Paulo's blocks—the city has roughly 800 in total—released a public letter in early April demanding the right to celebrate this year. They pointed out that sports events, music festivals, and the Sambadrome carnival had all been cleared to proceed. Why not street blocks?
Mayor Ricardo Nunes initially suggested blocks could parade during Tiradentes if they could cover the infrastructure and security costs themselves. That proposal drew sharp pushback from Lira Alli, a representative of the Arrastão dos Blocos collective and a signatory to the manifesto. She argued that blocks are cultural organizations, not event management companies. The state's job is to provide structure—police support, traffic control, medical stations capable of handling emergencies. Blocks provide the culture. They cannot and should not be asked to shoulder what belongs to the public sector.
When the two sides sat down Friday night at the São Paulo Cultural Center, the meeting deteriorated quickly. Four municipal secretaries attended: Torres from Culture, Elza Paulino de Souza from Urban Safety, Alexandre Modonezi from Subprefectures, and Marcos Duque Gadelho from Urbanism and Licensing. They presented their position with what organizers experienced as inflexibility. Ten days, they said, is not enough time to run the required bidding processes, arrange police deployment, coordinate ambulances and medical teams, reroute bus lines, and manage traffic across multiple simultaneous parades. The blocks left with signs demanding their right to celebrate and pleading for police not to use force. The city left with its position unchanged.
Torres told GloboNews the following day that the city wants to work with blocks on a June date, with proper planning and a new funding program. The city has committed to contracting at least 300 small street groups for performances at municipal cultural centers, libraries, and community spaces, paying them up to 5,700 reais each. This program only launched in early April, Torres explained, because blocks needed time to navigate municipal bureaucracy. But this offer did not address the core demand: the right to parade in April.
The organizers say the city never consulted them before canceling carnival in January. Thaís Haliski, coordinator of the Street Carnival Women's Commission, noted that the samba schools received different treatment—the city engaged them about postponement rather than outright cancellation. With the blocks, she said, there was no dialogue, only a decision handed down. "The city said the whole time it wanted to talk, but the posture was always intransigent," Haliski said. "They simply said there's no time and want us to take all responsibility for safety without even presenting an alternative proposal."
The city's position rests partly on the argument that some blocks themselves chose not to parade in January, which the administration interprets as a cancellation rather than a postponement. But the blocks counter that the city should have engaged them before making that call. Now, with roughly sixty groups determined to parade in April regardless of official approval, the city faces a dilemma: grant permission and scramble to organize, or refuse and risk unsanctioned parades that could create genuine safety hazards—blocked streets without police coordination, ambulances unable to reach people, the chaos that comes when a cultural tradition meets a city unprepared to receive it.
Citas Notables
We need to be careful not to reverse what is society's role and what is the state's role. As a carnival block, we can guarantee the production of popular culture. What is the state's role is to guarantee the structure.— Lira Alli, representative of Arrastão dos Blocos
In ten days for several blocks to go out at the same time, it's an operation we cannot organize. The idea is to think about how we do this still this year but further ahead, with more planning, but building a date with the blocks.— Aline Torres, São Paulo Culture Secretary
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does the city say ten days isn't enough time? What exactly takes so long?
They need to run formal bidding processes for vendors and services—that's the law. They need police deployment plans, medical teams stationed at multiple points, traffic rerouting for buses and cars. It's not just saying yes; it's coordinating across four different city departments.
But the blocks have been doing this for years. Can't they just do it themselves?
That's exactly what the blocks are saying—they can provide the culture, the music, the people. But they can't provide police or ambulances or guarantee that a street won't become an emergency route. That's the state's job, and the blocks are saying the state is trying to hand its job back to them.
So the blocks will parade anyway in April?
About sixty of them say they will. The city hasn't officially said what it will do if that happens. That's the real tension—the blocks have called the city's bluff.
Why does this matter beyond São Paulo?
Because it's about who gets to decide what culture looks like in a city, and who pays for it. If the city can simply cancel a tradition and offer money for smaller, controlled versions instead, that changes what carnival is.
Did the city offer anything the blocks actually wanted?
They offered money—up to 5,700 reais per block for performances at libraries and cultural centers. But that's not carnival. That's performances. The blocks want the streets.
What happens if sixty blocks parade without permission?
That's what the city is afraid of. Uncoordinated crowds, no police presence, no medical support. Real danger. But the blocks say the city created this by refusing to plan.