Fortal by SoccerGirl09
I don't know what I was thinking leaving this tip off of the list. Fortal is a big event that happens every year at the end of July (it is usually the last weekend of the month) and it lasts about 4 days... A lot of tourists come to town just for this event. It is like an out of season CARNIVAL. Various bands go down Avenida Beira Mar playing songs - these bands play on top of trucks with huge speakers "trio eletrico", and they are divided in "blocks". Each "Block" has a name and the people usually choose the block to go depending on price, or most of the time, depending on the band that is playing. If you don't have the picture on your mind yet... Fortal usually has 400.000 people a night and in it's 4 days about 2 MILLION people go out to celebrate in the Avenue (inside and outside of the blocks). GET THE PICTURE??? It is the biggest out of season Carnival in Brasil. Usually we have about 6 oficial "blocks". Fortal started in 1992, so, this will be it's 11th year. And if you don't like to go down and dace in the Avenue, following the "trio eletrico" you can always get in to a hotel, a club, or a "camarote" (kind of a VIP place with food, drinks, seats).Anyway... When you go, you don't want to have lot of pricey things on you. Don't take a lot of cash, just enough to get drunk, and make sure you take an ID. Cameras, only take them if they are disposable. There are plenty of photographers there, they will put your pics on the web and everything.
Oh, almost forgot... The only bad thing about this is that it is a bit expensive to go in the blocks. They range from R$200.00 - R$400.00 (BRAZILIAN CURRENCY). But $1.00 = R$2.85 (it changes everyday). So, if your currency is the American Dollar, yout money is worth almost 3 times more in Brazil... so it is worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Oh my Gosh... People wear all kinds of stuff. You are not going to dress up. You probably want to put shorts and a bathing suit on (when you buy the ticket to fortal, you get "abadas" (which is kinda like a shirt) so the people know which block you belong to). Plus, it is hot, by the beach, so you are going to sweat for sure, or get a beer bath, or get wet even when the firefighters come and "give" the people some water. So, bathing suit and shorts are the best option.