What is a Bloco?
A carnival bloco is the group that one joins to “parade” through the streets of Salvador behind a trio elétrico, an enormous amplified truck complete with a band on top. To join a bloco, one buys an abadá(shirt) which allows one to enter a protective corded area roped off around thetrio elétrico.
Joining a bloco allows you to follow a particular band through the crowded streets of Salvador. It's also a great place to meet people; in the four to six hours it takes for a carnival bloco and its trio to run the carnival circuit, you can meet and dance with as many new friends as your tired feet permit. Conversely, without the abadá, one can't join the bloco nor enter the corded area, and if you're not in the corded area, good luck trying to follow a particular band! Chances are you won't make it more than a couple of steps before you're engulfed by carnival’s frenetic masses. On the busier nights, it's said that more than a million people are out in the streets and when a popular trio passes with its enormous bloco in tow, those outside its protective cord are likely to get swept away by a tidal wave of humanity.
