Cultural Insomnia & CS Gas
São Paulo's Third Annual Virada CulturalSpannered's man in São Paulo, Al Fresco, recently spent the night trudging around the city's third annual Virada Cultural.
Virada Cultural roughly translates as 'having a cultural bender'. From 6pm Saturday 5 May until 6pm Sunday, São Paulo's council laid on exactly that, with over 350 cultural happenings, at 85 sites around the city. More than three million people turned up for what was essentially one of the world's biggest 24-hour free parties.
This year's Virada Cultural fell on the same weekend as Brazil's largest annual electronic music event. Skol Beats 2007 had an impressively dull line-up, and the organisers, Ambev, watered it down even more by putting on two nighttime events instead of just one. Whatever happened, attendance was down a pint-dropping 20,000 heads or so — little more than loose change for the largest brewer in Latin America, but a bad case of brewer's droop for their image in Brazil.
Anyway, back to Virada Cultural. Walking around downtown São Paulo after dusk is ill-advised, let alone stumbling about with a beer in one hand, camera in the other at four in the morning. Due to safety in sheer numbers, however, Virada Cultural was a chance to bumble about between the centre's magnificent buildings during the darkness hours, taking in performances by some of the country's most famous musicians, and dancing to jazz, techno and tango in the city's crowded praças.
This year's Virada Cultural fell on the same weekend as Brazil's largest annual electronic music event. Skol Beats 2007 had an impressively dull line-up, and the organisers, Ambev, watered it down even more by putting on two nighttime events instead of just one. Whatever happened, attendance was down a pint-dropping 20,000 heads or so — little more than loose change for the largest brewer in Latin America, but a bad case of brewer's droop for their image in Brazil.
Anyway, back to Virada Cultural. Walking around downtown São Paulo after dusk is ill-advised, let alone stumbling about with a beer in one hand, camera in the other at four in the morning. Due to safety in sheer numbers, however, Virada Cultural was a chance to bumble about between the centre's magnificent buildings during the darkness hours, taking in performances by some of the country's most famous musicians, and dancing to jazz, techno and tango in the city's crowded praças.
View over Vale do Anhangabaú
'Brush strokes', Praça do Patriarca
Believe me, there was a lot of stuff going on: horror films in cemeteries (with participation of the illustrous Zé do Caixão), collaborations between samba schools and orchestras, street art installations, abseiling fairies, cultural cuisine and shows from the likes of Nação Zumbi and Tom Zé. City soundsystem Dubversão did a great job of sucking in anyone who walked near Pateo do Colégio, dropping dub, dancehall and roots reggae on a single deck — tagteam style — cementing the gaps with MCing and hand-tweaked reverberations.
Crowd at Dubversão, Pateo do Colégio
Spotted soon after, on Rua Augusta
Nação Zumbi, band of the late Chico Science, played outside the nearby Sé Cathedral around midnight. After Pátio do Colégio, wandering into the vast, seething crowd (30,000 according to Indymedia Brasil) was really, really full on — it took half an hour of crowd-surfing/tug-of-war tactics to reach the relative calm of a sidestreet. Penned in on all sides, it felt like it could go off at any moment. That happened later, during hip hop act Racionais MCs.
Pole dancing at Praça de Sé
Racionais MCs don't hold Brazil's law enforcers in much regard (police brutality is a lyrical focus of theirs) and having their set ended by the CS gas and rubber bullets won't curry much favour to the contrary. While Racionais were playing, something kicked off in the crowd; MC Mano Brown did his best to calm it all down, but then the military police steamed in in their size fifteens to empty Praça de Sé by force, scattering people in all directions across the city. YouTube gives a much clearer picture of events than the coverage on Brazil's TV Globo.
The Portuguese titles in the clip read:
Under the pretext of controlling the tumult caused by some spectators, the military police decide to end the party for thousands of people. The soldiers shoot gas bombs and rubber bullets against the crowd, causing panic and making the tumult widespread.'All you have to do is look at the history of the Racionais. ... But we were prepared. (Lieutenant Jackson, speaking to the Folha de São Paulo)'In 2003, 975 citizens were killed by police in São Paulo. Only 44.1% of the victims were caught in the act. 27.68% were killed for being considered "suspects". 51% were shot in the back, another 36% received bullets in the head. In 2007, the UN's Report on Human Rights classified the Brazilian police as "frequently corrupt and abusive".
The music used is Caetano Veloso and Giberto Gil's classic Haiti (1993). Great track — there's a reasonable translation of the lyrics here.
In 1994, Racionais MCs performed a show in downtown São Paulo. The concert ended in a violent riot, for which they were blamed and charged. As Colin Brayton says on his blog, São Paulo's government don't have a great rep for handling large-scale public events. Pois é.
Desconfiança, insegurança, mano
Pois já se tem a consciência do perigo
Mal te conhecem e consideram um inimigo
E se você der o azar de apenas ser parecido
Eu te garanto que não vai ser divertido
Suspicion, insecurity, man
For already there’s awareness of the danger
They hardly know you but consider you an enemy
And if you’re unlucky enough to look similar [to the suspect]
I guarantee you it will not be fun
A Justiça Criminal é implacável.
Tiram sua liberdade, família e moral.
Mesmo longe do sistema carcerário, te chamarão para sempre de ex presidiário.
Não confio na polícia, raça do caralho.
Se eles me acham baleado na calçada, chutam minha cara e cospem em mim é..
eu sangraria até a morte...
Já era, um abraço!.
Por isso a minha segurança eu mesmo faço.
Criminal justice is implacable
It takes your liberty, family and moral sense
Even far from the prison system, they will forever call you an ex-prisoner
I don’t trust the police, race of assholes
If they find me shot down on the pavement, they kick me in the face and spit on me
I would bleed to death
That’s it, take care of yourself [sarcastic]
That’s why I have to look after my own security
