Forget Brazil’s famous carnival for a moment. There’s another festival that makes any trip to Brazil worth it on it’s own merits.

If you have missed carnival there is another festival, hidden out in the jungle, that is every bit the party that makes carnival so popular.

The Boi Bumba festival is an annual party held way out in the Amazon basin. The festival itself has largely been ignored by outsiders, which is a great reason to make the trek (and the trek there is half the fun).

The mid sized jungle town of Parintins hosts the Boi Bumba festival. It’s population usually hovers around 100,000 but doubles over the week of the festival. Getting there requires a flight/boat combination taking over 40 hours from Rio. This may have something to do with its popularity with the locals, but not as much the outside world.

The history of Boi Bumba reaches back over a century and every year the festival week represents the culmination of months of work on costumes and elaborate dance routines.

The premise of the festival is based on an old and well ingrained rivalry from the town itself; the blue team (the upper-class Caprichosos) fight against the red team (the working-class Garantidos).

Each team does their collective best to outdo each other with the hottest dancing, singing, floats and elaborate costumes. Spectators are given a running commentary by an announcer who eventually sings out the winner at the end of the night.

If you want the experience of a lifetime then consider Boi Bumba an option. You will be sharing this experince with far less tourists than carnival which means a more local experience of this amazing country and its people. Boi Bumba takes place on the 28th, 29th and 30th of June.

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