Revelers wrapped up Brazil's wild carnival bash with the popular Gala Gay ball last night on Rio de Janeiro's streets, littered with feathers and sequins after five days of partying.
Thousands of onlookers gawked as men in glittering miniskirts, evening dresses, bead-studded lingerie and feathered headdresses shimmied down a wide avenue to the sounds of ABBA's "Dancing Queen," for a party that would last until dawn today.
After a week that saw everything from a scandal over a planned Holocaust-themed float to a samba queen's quest to set a world record for the most plastic surgeries, revelers spent Carnival's last hours dancing the samba behind street bands.
"It is just impossible to describe it," 30-year-old Dutch bank worker Alexander Milikan said as he took a break from the festivities on Ipanema beach. "There's street parties everywhere, everyone's dancing, it's amazing."
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent and pre-Easter praying and fasting for the world's largest Roman Catholic country. But most Brazilians will be glued to their televisions in the afternoon to learn the winner of the centerpiece of Rio's Carnival: the fiercely competitive Samba parade.
Actresses Lucy Liu and Monica Bellucci were among the international celebrities attending this year's Rio parade, and supermodel Naomi Campbell showed up for Carnival in the coastal city of Salvador.