Brazilica Brought A Scorching Samba Spectacular To Liverpool

The whole of Liverpool was alive with the sound of Samba at the weekend as Liverpool Carnival Company's annual Brazilica Festival returned to the city with an epic Carnival extravaganza!

Visitors turned up in their thousands to witness the visually stunning Brazilica Carnival Parade on Saturday evening which made its way from Abercromby Square, along Hope Street, Hardman Street, Bold Street, and Church Street, before it's spectacular finale in Williamson Square.

An impressive 19 samba bands and dancers from all over the UK and Europe took part in the night-time procession. This year's parade included: ABC Dance; Arco Iris; Batala Mersey; Baque de Axe and Baque de Ogum; Beat Life; Cork City Samba; Karamba; Katumba; Manchester School of Samba; Oba!tuQ; Oya Batucada; Paraiso; Samba Espirito; Samba Funk Factory; Sambafriq; Unidos do Ritmo with percussionists and dancers from Leeds, Huddersfield and Brighton; Wirral School of Samba; Worldwise Samba drummers and Preston dancers; and of course, Liverpool Samba School with Samba Livre dancers - who all joined forces to deliver the impressive precession.

The colourful samba dancers got the crowds moving and shaking as they dazzled with their vibrant and energetic performances, and the impressive carnival floats also offered the wow factor to the precession.

The build up to the main Carnival Day began on Friday afternoon when French batucada percussion band Samba Funk Factory entertained crowds in the Fan Park located in Chavasse Park in Liverpool ONE.

Revolución de Cuba was awash with colour on Friday night as it hosted the glamourous Carnival Queen and King Competition.

13 contestants battled it out for Samba supremacy to be crowned this year's queen and king. Hosted by The Guide's Gemma Cutting, the brazil-iant turnout saw 2018 victor Katucha Bento crown this year's winners, Sarah Matelart was victorious as 2019's Carnival Queen and Chirag Goyate was hailed the very first Carnival King.

And following Saturday's parade the party continued until the early hours of Sunday morning at Camp and Furnace in Liverpool's Baltic Triangle at the official after party, hosted by carnival DJs with live performances from visiting samba bands.

Speaking about her delight of 2019's festival, Brazilica Director Maeve Morris said: "Wow, what a truly spectacular weekend! Thank you to everyone who came out to show their support, the crowds of Liverpool were wonderful as ever, and we hope you had as much fun as we did.

"It was a pleasure to welcome so many bands and samba schools to Brazilica 2019 - they came out in force from all across the UK and beyond, they helped make this year's festival the magnificent celebration of colour, music and dance!

"And of course, a huge thank you to our sponsors, supporters, and all of our volunteers - without whom we couldn't put on such an extraordinary event for the people and city of Liverpool."

The Brazilica action isn't over just yet, there is still time to soak up the Brazilian culture with the Brazilica Film Festival which runs from Thu 18 - Tue 30 July at various venues across the city including FACT, METAL, VideOdyssey and The Kazimier Stockroom. The film programme can be found online at www.brazilica.co.uk or on the Facebook page /brazilicafestival.

The UK's largest Samba Carnival event, Brazilica has become one of the flagship events of the year in Liverpool's festival calendar attracting over 60,000 visitors to the city centre.

Liverpool Carnival Company are now looking ahead to next year and have already started to plan Brazilica 2020.

Liverpool Carnival Company continue to raise the bar in their efforts to improve the festival and always succeed in finding ways to bring it back bigger and better, so get set for another samba-sational event in 2020!

To get involved in Brazilica Festival 2020 as a media partner, sponsor or volunteer please contact carnivalcompany@aol.com

Keep up to date with all Brazilica Festival activity at www.brazilica.co.uk.