Carnival photoshoot

Carnaval 2027 runs from Saturday 6 February to Tuesday 9 February, with Ash Wednesday on 10 February, according to the São Paulo city hall’s published programme for its street carnival. The season starts earlier: in Rio de Janeiro, Riotur has scheduled the street carnival to begin on 16 January 2027, and the blocos that parade in the weekends before the main days are often a calmer setting for a session than the four days themselves. Salvador’s circuits of trios elétricos and the steep streets of Olinda follow the same main dates, and Recife’s Galo da Madrugada parades on the Saturday morning.

The session does not happen inside the densest part of a bloco. The largest street parades in Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Olinda draw crowds in which nobody can step back far enough for a portrait, so the photographer meets you at the gathering point half an hour before the bloco moves, on a side street nearby, at your hotel or on a beach. A few frames in the moving crowd are possible afterwards. The samba school parades inside the Sambódromo in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo are not covered: they run on their own tickets and access rules.

Carry little and plan for heat. A phone in a front pocket or a pouch under the costume, water, and sunscreen that does not dissolve glitter are enough; passports and jewellery stay at the hotel, because Carnaval crowds are where pickpockets work hardest. Street closures change every day, so the meeting point, route and fallback are agreed by message the evening before. Groups in matching costumes can book together, and the 20 edited photos are delivered within 7 days, while the season is still on.