Celebrate Carnival in Montevideo
Join in the festivities at Latin America's Mardi Gras street carnival in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Think Carnival in Latin America and Brazil immediately springs to mind. But its tiny neighbour Uruguay celebrates what is perhaps the longest carnival in the world – over a month of festivities. The celebrations there have evolved from the one day off which the 18th century wealthy residents of Montevideo granted their African slaves. A drum-based musical form from that era, candombe, rapidly merged with other Uruguayan music to create the current rhythms. Nowadays Carnival features street parades with outlandish costumes, including samba school competitions; and theatrical events with song and poetry, many occurring in different residential zones in the capital. The action intensifies over the official Mardi Gras weekend which ends on Ash Wednesday.
