Rio Carnaval LGBTQ+ 2026 — Gala Gay & Blocos

Rio Carnaval is the world's most celebrated annual festival and its most LGBTQ+-inclusive public celebration. During Carnaval week in February or early March, Rio de Janeiro's normal social rules are suspended and gender and sexual expression are performed with a freedom unavailable at any other time. The LGBTQ+ highlights of Rio Carnaval include the Gala Gay at Scala nightclub — Brazil's most famous LGBTQ+ Carnaval ball, held annually since the 1960s and attended by Brazilian celebrities, drag queens of extraordinary artistry, and the community in sequins and feathers — and the city's dozens of street blocos, the informal neighbourhood street parties that draw hundreds of thousands of people each. The travesti tradition of Carnaval performance is centuries deep in Rio, from the Samba schools' elaborate productions in the Sambódromo to the informal street celebrations in every neighbourhood. The Bola Preta bloco, one of Rio's oldest and largest with up to a million participants, absorbs a vast LGBTQ+ crowd into its famously inclusive celebration. For LGBTQ+ visitors who can reach Rio during Carnaval, the experience — beach by day, balls and blocos by night, the whole city in celebration — is unlike anything else in the world.