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The sleepy little town of Parintins, Brazil, comes alive once every June as the Boi Bumba festival begins. This is a party 2nd in size only to Rio's Carnival.  People come from all over Brazil, most travelling by boat, hanging hammocks and using the boats as floating hotel during the 3 day extravaganza. It begins with a street parade but the highlight is a performance in a packed 35,000 seat arena. We attended an abbreviated version of the 3 hour performance, held at one of the practice venues.  2 samba schools compete every year telling the same story.  The story goes that a poor farmer kills a bull to feed his pregnant wife. The bull belongs to a rich landowner whose daughter kept this bull as her special pet. In the end, the bull comes back to life and all live happily ever after. The story is a basic fairly tale, but fantastically becomes larger than life as its told in a dramatic dance performance with bright colored, feathered costumes and huge floats. 

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The magic bull makes his appearance....

A huge production involves hundreds of dancers as well as a team behind the scenes to make it all happen. 

The competition seems to involve the whole town in one way or another, people are so loyal to their side that they even wear soccer-type jerseys showing their team support. The Garantido team is the color red, and the Caprichoso team the color blue. 

 In order not to alienate Caprichoso fans, this is the only place in the world where Coca-Cola's logo appears in blue.

The party was so much fun, I want to go back when the festival starts- Check out video of the real festival!