1.
CU AND GV: Arco-Iris group parading to music with red veils and feathered headdresses (2 shots)
0.23

2.
CU: ladies parading in the `luxury costume' class. (2 shots)
0.40

3.
CU: Zoe Nascimento, first prize in luxury class, with `Arrogance the first capital sin'
0.49

4.
CU: Tuny Pereira in costume called `Pomp and Circumstance of the Egyptian Empire' (Second Prize)
0.55

5.
SV: judges
0.58

6.
SV PAN: Ladies Fancy Dress winners PAN ACROSS FROM Ist Prize winner to fourth.
1.05

7.
CU AND SV: contestant in men's originality class (2 shots)
1.14

8.
CU: Contestant in men's `luxury class'.
1.20

9.
CU: Winner in men's luxury class, Evandro de Castro Lima in Castro Lima in costume, `Requiem Aos Romanoff'
1.26

10.
SV: another contest in men's luxury class
1.34

11.
CU: judges
1.41

12.
CU: Aurelio Goncalvez, third prize in originality with clown costume `Pierrot Brasil'
1.54

13.
Judges watch as second prize winner in men's priginality Jorge Costa in `The Monkey is King in the Planet of Men'
2.04

14.
Male Prizewinners on stage.
2.11



Initials RH/



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Rio's once-a-year carnival is under way and thousands of tourists and locals turned up for the judging of the annual fancy-dress competition. It was held on Saturday (24 February) at the Hotel Nacional.

SYNOPSIS: The competition judging is one of the highlights of the extravagant festival. Among the most exotic entrants were the Arco-Iris group.

The prize money, some ten thousand U.S. dollars handed out to the winners, attracted fifty entrants to the competition. Most of them came from Brazil, but this year entrants also turned up from Chile and Argentina.

This costume worn by Zoe Nascimento, entitled "Arrogance-The First Capital Sin" won first prize in the luxury costume class. And close second came "Pomp and Circumstance the Egyptian Empire" by Tuny Pereira. Judging is tough... each year competition grows and contestants spend months before the parades working on the elaborate end products.

For the men there was a section to choose the most original costume.

This work of art, titled "Requiem Aos Romanoff" by Evandro de Castro Lima outclassed all its rivals and carried off first prize in the men's luxury class.

However, luxury is not everything in Rio...Prizes for originality went to the Pierrot Brasil clown and "The Monkey is King in the Planet of Men" costume.

The names given to the costumes are almost as spectacular as the garbs themselves. But in Rio at Carnival, anything goes.