From the streets to the “bumbodrome” : aspects of the Parintins spetacular

Abstract

A research about Parintins Folk Festival, conducted between 2004 and 2007, has added essay characteristics to the journalistic methods. The work investigates how the festival relates to the everyday life, evaluating cultural, economic and political aspects. In this text attention is focused in the festival transformations. In the 1920´s it happened in the streets. Since 1988 it has moved to a building known as “bumbódromo”: a stadium for 35,000 people. The boi-bumbá tradition, inherited from Northeastern Brazil bumba-meu-boi, had changed as time passed by. Therefore, the festival has taken new proportions and it became a mediatic show, with flamboyant scenes planned to seduce not only the local public but the television audience as well.