A carnival procession that paid extravagant homage to the legends of northern Brazil was Wednesday named the winner of this year's spectacular carnival parades in Rio de Janeiro.
The samba school Beija Flor, which presented the glittering floats and armies of dancers right at the end of the parades early Tuesday, was given the victory for the second consecutive year.
Within Brazil, the honor is treated with all the pomp and respect of a football championship trophy.
It notably gives a surge of national pride to the usually poor neighborhood, or slum, in which many of the samba schools have their roots.
For Beija Flor, which comes from the Rio suburb of Nilopolis, it also confirmed a winning streak that was tarnished last year when suspicions surfaced that it manipulated its way to its 2007 win.
At the time, there were allegations that it intimidated jury members. Its honorary president, Aniz David, was detained during the investigation, along with several carnival directors.
"This proves that our 2007 title was not stolen," one of the members of the school's management declared after the jury's verdict on this year's parades was read out in public.
Beija Flor gave Brazilian mythology imaginative and grand treatment, sending out eight palatial floats depicting jungle giants, fictional animals and 4,200 costumed dancers, as well as the traditional "drum queens:" beautiful models wearing little more than sequins and feathers.
Its entire show was estimated to have cost more than four million dollars.
The money and effort paid off when the jury on Wednesday gave the school a score of 399.3 points out of a possible 400 -- handing Beija Flor its 10th title and making it the dominant group of the last two decades.
The celebration of Beija Flor's triumph by 20,000 people inside and outside the Samba school's headquarters in Nilopolis ended with a sour note at midnight when a group of drunk revelers got in a fistfight that injured six people. Organizers decided to call it a night, ending the party and the free beer.
Rio's fantastical parades are the climax of Brazil's carnival celebrations, which each year precede the traditional Christian fasting period of Lent.
Although tourists delight in the two nights of extravagant displays, the 12 schools unveiling their elaborate entries are in fact locked in a fierce competition to be named winner.
Judges evaluate each of the processions -- which take 80 minutes to pass stands thronged with 70,000 people -- on the musical and visual execution of the chosen themes, which are often political or social in nature.
Although some of the "drum queens" take raunchiness to extremes with their almost-not-there outfits, the rules state that none can appear completely naked.
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