Philly Four Take Podium Glory

They embodied the energy Egili installed in them, singing and waving at the crowd down the Avineda and living the moment to the maximum

Tony was up for everything and wanted us to secure positions known as semi-destaque which are the premier positions on the float. Through some skilled negotiation and pulling in favours, Samantha managed to get four positions for the samba school Mocidade on the most incredible float. Now, these positions weren’t for the faint-hearted as they were at the four corners of the float on 30ft high podiums.

When we got a call about a new client who wanted to go all in, we naturally got excited. It was 2022, the year after Carnival was cancelled for the first time in its history due to Covid-19 and there was still a lot of nervousness about an event of this scale and potential risks. Then a new variant struck and Carnival was moved from February to April but this didn’t put Tony, his wife and their two best friends off.

Tony was up for everything and wanted us to secure positions known as semi-destaque which are the premier positions on the float. Through some skilled negotiation and pulling in favours, Samantha managed to get four positions for the samba school Mocidade on the most incredible float. Now, these positions weren’t for the faint-hearted as they were at the four corners of the float on 30ft high podiums.

Their costumes were inspired by death birds which sounds macabre but as you can see, they were anything but! We planned a secret big reveal at their Ipanema penthouse apartment after they had done a samba lesson with a true Carnival Queen. Egili Oliveira is the Queen of the drums section for the samba school Academicos de Vigario Geral and was then crowned the Best Queen of the parades for 2022. Egili not only prepared them for the experience of Carnival and ignited their inner confidence but she gave them insight into the culture, history and the honour of parading that was bestowed on them.

Leaving the lesson, they were blown away by Egili’s energy and the experience that awaited them. Little did they know that back at the apartment their costumes were waiting for them. Their reactions will forever be etched in our hearts!

That evening they went to watch the first night of the premier league from a hospitality area called Folia Tropical. Here they partied the night away from the best seats in the house with an Experience Carnival host at their side. Seeing the parade prepared them for what was to come as they hadn’t comprehended the scale of the Rio Carnival, “it is next level New Orleans!”.

On the day of the parade, we picked the guys up early to take them to Carnival makeup artist William Xavier’s studio to have a full Carnival make-up. For Tony’s wife Lacy, a mum of three young children, getting to dress up and wear make-up was one thing but being professionally made-up and wearing the most incredible outfit gave her space to step back into who she is. It was emotional to see her connect to her inner confidence and dancer training, watched in total pride and awe by her husband.

Walking down to the concentration area to get on their float was incredible. They felt like rock stars on the way to their gig. As the atmosphere built so did their excitement. Getting into their positions was done by cherry picker so required some strong nerves which they all had in abundance.

They embodied the energy Egili installed in them, singing and waving at the crowd down the Avineda and living the moment to the maximum. They were all filled with so much adrenaline coming off that they wanted to go again! They succumbed to going home and dancing around their living room as tomorrow another adventure awaited.

A private VIP helicopter ride over Christ the Redeemer before flying to the beautiful island of Ilha Grande. It was the perfect ending to an experience that will never be forgotten and told to generations to come.

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