A Samba School is an association of people from the same neighborhood, usually a popular community (favela) or suburban area. They get together on a regular basis for samba meetings and rehearsals. Samba schools provide valuable jobs to the community in the production of costumes, and floats. Each year schools choose a different theme Samba Schools may take to the Parade anything from 3,000 to 5,000 members, and from 6 to 8 floats. They have to make it through the runway in a period from 60 to 80 minutes. This means each member will spend only about 25-30 minutes in the Sambodrome. The experience is so intense, though, that memories will last a lifetime.

The parade of every school is highly organized and designed. They line up in a unique way to present their pageant. The schools are divided into a number of sections and each section has a number of wings of about 100 people wearing the same costume. Sometimes even 2 wings (app. 200 people) have the same costume. You will find more details about the role and name of some special sections of the Parade on the other side of this page.

In between the wings, there are about 10 Carnival floats, separating the sections. Most of them are pushed along by men from the School's community but some are motorized and have mechanical parts. The floats carry special guests along with some young and mesmerizing samba dancers in very elaborate, awe-inspiring costume creations.