Carnival 2009 has been officially launched in Rio de Janeiro by an event called "parade draw". With many schools deciding upon their samba-concept and samba-lyrics, the Rio de Janeiro 2009 Carnival parade schedule was settled by a draw at the Samba city. The draw is very important since it defines the schedule in which the samba schools parade at the Sambadrome, Sunday and Monday Carnival.



Presidents of all samba schools that take part of the Rio de Janeiro Carnival elite represented their organizations in this happening.

Parade Schedule for 2009 Rio de Janeiro Carnival was defined as follows:

Sunday Carnival - February 22nd, 2009

9:00 PM : Império Serrano Samba School 10:00 PM : Grande Rio Samba School 11:10 PM : Vila Isabel Samba School 00:15 AM: Mocidade Independente Samba School 01:20 AM: Beija-Flor Samba School 02:25 AM: Unidos da Tijuca Samba School

Monday Carnival - February 23nd, 2009

9:00 PM : Porto da Pedra Samba School 10:00 PM : Salgueiro Samba School 11:10 PM : Imperatriz Leopoldinense Samba School 00:15 AM: Portela Samba School 01:20 AM: Mangueira Samba School 02:25 AM: Viradouro Samba School

The Samba Schools have a minimum of 65 minutes and maximum of 82 minutes of parading time at the Sambadrome.

Some of Rio ´s most important Carnival and tourism authorities were also present at the event, including Jorge Castanheira, carnival major league association "LIESA" president; Bruno Matos, director of events of Riotur; Aloysio Legey, Globo TV Network broadcasting director, and Rio de Janeiro State Representative Francisco de Carvalho (Chiquinho da Mangueira ) to name a few.

Carnival in Brazil in 2009 starts February 20th, which is a Friday and goes on until Tuesday night, February 24th. The official Carnival parades in Rio de Janeiro take place just before the start of Lent. They are held for four consecutive nights, during which schools parade one after another from 8pm until the morning. The Access Group A samba schools are hosted on Saturday, Special Group on Sunday and Monday and Access Group B on Tuesday. The Special Group nights are by far the biggest attractions.

Each samba school has a preset amount of time (80 minutes) to parade from one end of the Sambadrome to the other with all its thousands of dancers, its drum section, and a number of floats. Each school has its own unique qualities according to its own traditions. Schools are graded by a jury, and the competition is ferocious. On Ash Wednesday, grades are gathered and one school is declared the winner.

The Parade of Champions is held the following Saturday featuring the five winning samba schools in the Special Group category.

Some of the Carnival parties and street groups however start up one week before the official Carnival Dates.