The main Carnival days in Sao Paulo are Friday and Saturday, when the area’s top samba schools compete for bragging rights to being the best dancers in the city. The Sambadrome attracts 30,000 roaring spectators, while the streets open up into open-air parties. Photo: AFP/Mauricio Lima
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As the most international city in Germany, Berlin hosts its own version of Carnival called Carnival of Cultures which celebrates the diversity among the 3.4 million inhabitants. Last year, the four-day festival, which represented more than 70 different cultures, attracted 1.28 million visitors. Photo: AFP / Johannes Eisele
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This year, 18 floats and 1,000 musicians and dancers from around the world will entertain the masses along the French Riviera to the overall theme of “King of the Five Continents,” which will give the seat of honor to the French-speaking world. Other perennial highlights for the French version of Carnival are the Flower Parades and the Parade of Lights. Photo: AFP / Valery Hache
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After hosting the Super Bowl, the biggest sporting event of the year in the US over the weekend, New Orleans is getting primed for throwing another massive party on Fat Tuesday – a combination so epic the twinned event is being called ‘Super Gras.’ Both organizers and Mardi Gras revelers alike will be profiting from the $1.3 billion facelift to the city’s infrastructure for the games this year. The hope is that this year’s parade will entice Super Bowl visitors to stay longer for a parade or two to make it the city's biggest and bring it back to pre-Katrina levels. Photo: AFP / Rod Lamkey JR
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It’s billed as the biggest Carnival celebration in the Caribbean. While Brazil may have the samba, in Trinidad the strains that waft throughout the islands are soca, calypso and steelpan music. One of the signature events is J’Ouvert, a contraction of the words 'jour' and 'ouvert' or day open, which kickstarts the festival at 4 am Monday morning. Under a cloak of night, revelers take over the streets for a pre-dawn party, painting themselves in chocolate, mud, oil or paint to depict devils, demons, monsters and imps. Photo: AFP/Blacqbook/shutterstock.com
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This year marks the Sydney Mardi Gras’s 35th anniversary, a month-long party for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. To mark this milestone, this year’s edition will bring all the generations together to give thanks to those who pioneered the movement in 1978. Photo: AFP/Krystle Wright
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Known as the Carnival Capital of the World, this year’s edition is expected to attract a whopping 6 million revellers over 492 city blocks. From open-air street parties, gala balls, samba lessons and parades, Carnival in Rio turns the already vibrant city into a non-stop pulsing, heaving organism. The main parading days are Sunday and Monday when different samba schools compete at the Sambodromo, the “stadium” of samba, for the coveted championship. Photo: AFP / Vanderlei Almeida
