Entertainment in Brazil
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Maracanã Football Stadium
As Rio prepares for the 2014 World Cup, the famed Rio stadium will be closed indefinitely from August 2010 as the stadium undergoes extensive renovations. Once it reopens (probably not until 2012 or 2013), a game at Maracanã is a must-see for visitors. Matches here rate among the most exciting in the world, and the behavior of the fans is no less colorful. The devoted pound huge samba drums, letting out a roar as their team takes the field, and if things are going badly – or very well – fans are sometimes driven to sheer madness. Some detonate smoke bombs in team colors, while others rip out the seats or launch objects into the seats below. (Things have calmed slightly…
reviewed
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Baronneti
One of Ipanema's few nightclubs, Baronneti has a sleek and trim interior with a choice of two dance floors. Given its prime Zona Sul location, you'll find a young, well-heeled crowd here. Eclectic DJs and fruity cocktails keep the fans returning again and again.
reviewed
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Academia Da Cachaça
Although cachaça (cane liquor) has a sordid reputation in some parts, here the fiery liquor is given the respect it nearly deserves. Along with traditional Brazilian cooking, this pleasant indoor-outdoor spot serves over 100 varieties of cachaça, and you can order it straight, with honey and lime, or disguised in a fruity caipirinha. For a treat (and/or a bad hangover), try the passion-fruit batida (cachaça and passion-fruit juice).
reviewed
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Palácio das Artes
The Palácio das Artes, an arts complex with multiple performance spaces and galleries near the southern end of Parque Municipal, is the hub of Belo’s theater, dance, and music-concert scene.
reviewed
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Casa da Cultura Mario Quintana
The cultural center in this pink baroque building has a cinema and two busy cafés. The 7th-floor Café Concerto Majestic is a lovely place to listen to live music and watch the sunset over Lagoa dos Patos.
reviewed
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Café Suplicy
Santo Grão's rival is smaller, with a refined industrial-chic feel and also outrageously good coffee and pastries.
reviewed
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Roxy
Copacabana’s only cinema.
reviewed
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Boat Party
reviewed
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Bienal de São Paulo
Modeled on the Venice Biennale, the Bienal de São Paulo , founded in 1951, has grown into one of the world's most important arts events. Many of the participants are working artists who have been nominated by their home country. In addition, a guest curator chooses a theme and invites his or her own favorites. At its best, the Bienal offers the world a chance to view mind-bending contemporary art. Certainly it cannot fail to impressive for its sheer size and diversity.
The event is held during even-numbered years, generally from October to December, in a sprawling pavilion designed by modernist master Oscar Niemeyer in the leafy Parque do Ibirapuera. In recent years,…
reviewed
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Praia do Jacaré
Almost every Brazilian tourist who comes to João Pessoa comes to the Rio Paraíba north of the city to hear saxophonist Jurandy play Ravel’s Bolero at sunset, which has spawned a tourism empire along the water’s edge (some come from as far away as Natal and Recife just for this). It sounds corny but it’s definitely a spectacle worth witnessing, and quite beautiful. Four overwater bars play host (try Bombardo for the added bonus of violinist Belle Soares, who plays afterwards). Arrive by 4:30pm (4pm in winter) to get a choice seat. A round-trip taxi from Tambaú (including wait time) is R$50.
reviewed
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Av Pinheiro Machado
The corner of Avs Pinheiro Machado and Presidente Dutra is the epicenter of Porto Velho's nightlife. Three bars in row - Emporium, Estação do Porto and Buda's Bar - serve up beer, mixed drinks, and a cool, bohemian-ish atmosphere that draws a mixed-age crowd. Weekends are busiest, of course, and occasionally feature live music.
Further down Av Pinheiro Machado - to about Rua Goncalves - are several more small bars, restaurants and cafés, if you're looking for something bit mellower (or just a bite to eat).
reviewed
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Aeroclube Plaza Show
The young and wealthy head for Aeroclube Plaza Show, an outdoor entertainment complex with a few bars, dance clubs and free live forró nights. Inside, Rock in Rio (3461 0300; h10pm-last customer Tue-Sun) is a 1700-sq-meter dance club with eight bars that gets packed on weekends. Also in Aeroclube, Café Cancun (3461 0603; h9pm-last customer Tue-Sat) has a Mexican theme to its food and decor, and makes for a fun night of dancing and some tequila drinking.
reviewed
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John People Bar
This modern boteco (neighborhood bar) sits on prime people-watching real estate in Tambaú. There’s a front patio and breezy rooftop deck overlooking the stage elevated above the bar. Live music starts at 9:30pm and varies between forrópé-da-serra, a slower form of forró, on Tuesday, MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) by a Dave Matthews-esque power trio from Wednesday to Friday and samba on Saturday. A 2500ml tube of chope (draft beer) here runs R$28 – saúde !
reviewed
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Londra
Rio’s glammiest bar is inside the newly opened Hotel Fasano, and offers a vision of decadence matched by few of the city’s nightspots. The cozy space, designed by Philippe Starck, has an enchantingly illuminated bar, leather armchairs and divans, and a DJ spinning a good mix of world electronica. As you might imagine, the crowd is pure A-list, the cocktails are pricey (R$15 to R$26), and unless you’re a model (or have one draped on your arm), prepare for a long wait at the door.
reviewed
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Aluarte
This alluring and romantic cavelike nightspot is whimsically lit with perforated metal lamps decked with colored streamers. Lounge on the cushions with your paramour while eating fondue, or duck out back to the herbal hot tub under the trees (by reservation only, R$100 per couple for 1½ hours, including tea, fruit, water and candles). On slow nights, Pedro may invite you into the kitchen to chat while he cooks you pizza on top of the wood stove. On holiday weekends, there’s live music.
reviewed
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Clube Finlândia
There is now only a sprinkling of Finns among the assortment of Brazilian people, but they all get together for traditional Finnish letkiss and jenkkas dances at Clube Finlândia every Saturday night. Finnish dancing lessons are open to the public starting at 9pm. At 10:30pm a local troupe presents a 40-minute traditional dance performance in Old World getup, then the dance floor is reopened to everyone for the rest of the night.
reviewed
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Sacadura
A new addition to Rio’s nightlife, Sacadura is located a few doors down from Trapiche Gamboa in an otherwise fairly deserted stretch of Gamboa. It offers a mix of Música Popular Brasileria (MPB), samba-rock and jazz in a big open venue with exposed masonry and dim lighting. Despite the loud rock pounding from onstage, the crowd was fairly staid when last we stopped by. It’s located north of Centro – take a taxi.
reviewed
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Sancho Music Club
The Alto de Ponta Negra neighborhood in the upper part of Ponta Negra, around Rua Manoel AB de Araújo and Rua Aristides Porpino Filho, is dense with a variety of bars, though most are almost cringingly steeped in sex tourism, a major problem in Natal. Sancho Music Club, with tapas and chope is one of the less slimy spots. This area, especially around Centro Comercial O Jardim, is packed from Wednesday to Saturday nights.
reviewed
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Rastapé
The Alto de Ponta Negra neighborhood in the upper part of Ponta Negra, around Rua Manoel AB de Araújo and Rua Aristides Porpino Filho, is dense with a variety of bars, though most are almost cringingly steeped in sex tourism, a major problem in Natal. Rastapé here, famous for live forró, is one of the less slimy spots. This area, especially around Centro Comercial O Jardim, is packed from Wednesday to Saturday nights.
reviewed
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Engarrafamento
The name means ‘traffic jam, ’ and that’s just what you’ll get at the door of this fun middle-class venue for live pagode (popular samba music), Música Popular Brasileira (MPB), forró and pop/rock. It looks little more than a restaurant from the outside, but inside it’s near disco-like, teeming with cool kids knocking back buckets of cheap Skol and picking at tasty bar food. Worth the R$15 taxi fare, especially on Sundays.
reviewed
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Banca Do Blues
A rather nondescript banca (newspaper stand) by day transforms into a serious jam fest for blues bands certain nights of the week. It’s a great street scene, with folding chairs, vendors selling beer and the clash of electronically amplified chords firing up the blues-loving crowd. The schedule changes, so call before making the trip. At the time of writing, bands were playing on Friday night, starting at about 7pm or 8pm.
reviewed
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Clube Finlandês
There is now only a sprinkling of Finns among the assortment of Brazilian people, but they all get together for traditional Finnish letkiss and jenkiss dances here every Saturday night. Finnish dancing lessons are open to the public starting at 21:00. At 22:30 a local troupe presents a 40-minute traditional dance performance in Old World get up, then the dance floor is reopened to everyone for the rest of the night.
reviewed
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Adega Flor De Coimbra
In the same building that was once the home of Brazilian painter Cândido Portinari, the Adega Flor de Coimbra has been a bohemian haunt since it opened in 1938. Back in its early days, leftists, artists and intellectuals drank copiously at the slim old bar looking out on Lapa. Today, it draws a mix of similar types, who drink wine and sangria with Adega's tasty bolinhos de bacalhau (codfish croquettes) or feijoada.
reviewed
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Boteco
Like most Brazilian cities, the boteco (Brazilian neighborhood bar) culture usually rules the nightlife and, though a chain, the obviously-named Boteco packs in the Recifenses. We’re not sure what whips through faster, the ocean breezes or the waiters loaded down with chope and Brazilian bar munchies such as picanha (choice beef cuts) and savory pesticos (bar snacks). It’s very hard to say no.
reviewed
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Bar do Copa
Inside Copacabana's most recognizable landmark, this poolside bar received a dramatic R$4million makeover in 2009, raising the stakes in the hotelier design game. The ceiling, with its 10,000 points of light, aims to mimic the night sky, while crystal chandeliers, glowing column-sized luminaries and gilded mosaics add a vaguely futuristic element to the spacious lounge. There are live bands and DJs; Palace guests get in free.
reviewed