CarnaRARA: electronic music takes Carnival into the city

Carnival in Rio has more than one musical geography. CarnaRARA’s 2026 edition, followed in WAYFARER’s March archive, placed electronic music inside that wider map.

RARA occupied Praça Marechal Âncora in the city centre with a programme described as lasting more than fifteen hours. The square gave the event an urban setting distinct from both the conventional nightclub and the familiar street bloco.

Seth Troxler, Jamie Jones, Carl Craig and DJ Tennis appeared in the source alongside Brazilian artists including Eli Iwasa and Vivi Seixas. House, disco and techno formed the musical vocabulary. The international names did not remove the local context; they entered it.

Two floors gave the gathering different scales. The main stage held longer sets and a Carl Craig and Seth Troxler back-to-back, while Pista Mergulho offered another route into Brazilian underground programming. Moving between them became part of the evening’s structure.

Feathers and saturated colours connected the visual design with Carnival. This adaptation records the historical edition rather than announcing another date or confirming a future line-up. The archive’s enduring observation is that a public square can accommodate new Carnival languages without abandoning the city’s identity.

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Adapted from the WAYFARER Brazil archive, first published 2026-03-16. English adaptation: 6 October 2026. This is an archival account, not a report of a new visit. Exhibitions, collections and menu details are described in their original context, not as current availability.