Rio Carnival. Copacabana Palace. A black-tie gala. Each is synonymous with opulence and tradition, with cult-status reverence (among Brazilians and the rest of the world) and with being a very fun party. And each year, on the Saturday of Carnival, the three form a glitzy trio that becomes The Copa Carnival Ball at Copacabana Palace, A Belmond Hotel; Rio's hottest party – no small feat, in a town where street parties sprout up seemingly unannounced drawing hundreds of thousands of revellers and 90,000 people crowd into the Sambadrome for hours to dance with the greatest samba schools on the planet.
Copacabana Palace’s first Carnival ball took place in its inaugural year, at the height of the Roaring Twenties. Its status became instantly mythical in the city; in the decades that followed it was attended by the starry likes of Bridgette Bardot, Mary Pickford and Joan Fontaine, who, if you squint hard enough (or sink enough Caipirinhas) you can practically still see shimmering through the Copa’s grande-dame hallways and decadent ballrooms.
Now, the guest list is the most elevated in town. Politicians, socialites and musicians walk the black carpet to a crowd of paparazzi and locals straining for a good look, while a live band beat out a samba soundtrack to get guests in the mood for the main nights at the Sambadrome (these take place on Sunday and Monday – Carnival is not a once and done kind of event and requires a ‘90s rave-culture style of stamina). In 2023, as the Copa celebrates its 100th anniversary (spy the guest book and signed photos of Neslon Mandela, Princess Diana and national hero Gisele Bündchen in the newly revamped Hall of Fame for an idea of this place’s starry status) and Carnival is wholeheartedly back for the first time since the pandemic, the hotel hosted one of its biggest parties yet – celebrating the past, the present and the future at a trippy gala.
Take a peek behind the curtain at some of the most fascinating moments we experienced – and some of the ultra-glittery things we observed.
More is more
The official dress code at the Copa Carnival Ball is ‘black tie’. But that feels like an understatement. This is Rio de Janeiro, after all, during Carnival, no less. Sure, there are men in traditional black tie – but they are far outnumbered by full-glam, gender-bending, skin-revealing creations worn by everyone from South American socialites to dashing young men and older women who have probably been attending the ball since they were themselves in their 20s. Gold headdresses and lollipop-hued feathers tower above the crowd. I particularly loved an especially beautiful guy who had foregone a shirt at all in favour of full-body gold spray paint and a Phantom-of-the-Opera-style mask. Rio is not a prudish city, and this is not a buttoned-up formal event. It's amazing how quickly you assimilate to semi-nudity and three-foot headdresses here.
Samba is everything
The whole second floor of the hotel is taken over for the party, and the team starts revamping the space weeks in advance. This year, the theme – ‘1923-2123’ – took guests on a journey through the opulent heritage of the hotel in the ‘20s to a space-age vision of what Carnival will look like in the future. More than 1,500 people spread throughout the various spaces, with music playing across the entire event. A DJ spinning amped-up versions of poppy hits was a good vibe, but that’s not really why you’re here. Most guests strain to get into the Golden Room – the hotel’s most extravagant ballroom, where the likes of Ella Fitzgerald have played in the past – where one of the city’s best samba schools play what seems like an endless stream of music and women dripping in pearls perform in cages on the stage. The dancing crowd is almost part of the show itself. You will not be able to dance as well as Brazilians. It won’t matter.
Carnival – and the Copa Carnival Ball – is about the future as much as the past
The first celebrations that would become Rio Carnival started in the 1650s, so every event that takes place in the week-long Carnival season honours the heritage of the past. It wasn’t until the 19th century that the first masquerade ball came along, and not until the 1910s that Carnival started to draw on the samba music that it’s now known for. But there’s a feeling across the city that Cariocas are more excited than ever for the future of Carnival. After a couple of pandemic years where Carnival was cancelled or pared back, the eagerness for the event not to go back to ‘normal’ but to transform and evolve into something even better is tangible. Cue the gyrating spacemen dancing beneath an ocean of glitter balls on the Copa’s terrace, transporting us to a Carnival future that looks every bit as sparkly as the gold-hued past.
There are as many showgirls as Barry Manilow led us to believe
Rio loves a showgirl. And the Copa is practically synonymous with them thanks to Barry Manilow, who penned his famous song after a night at the Copa that has now been in my head for a solid week. His inspiration is easy to spot – the Carnival Ball spotlights showgirls at every opportunity and on practically every available surface (even the buffet table). There’s also a Queen of the Ball – essentially the showgirl to end all showgirls, who dances on stage and works the room all aglitter. This year, her name was not Lola but Izabel Goulard (pictured above). She leads the crowd through the night into what couldn't even feasibly be called the early hours – the DJ cut the music at 6am, when hundreds of guests finally spilled out onto the sun-drenched streets for another day of celebrations. In Rio, the party doesn't end – like carnival and the Copa, it just evolves into something new.
Copacabana Palace, A Belmond Hotel, has rooms from $400.