Possibly one of the best examples of how different religions and old European customs have merged with local legends and influences to produce an incredible variety of Brazilian folklore can be seen at the Festival of Parintins.

Once a year Parintins hosts a unique festival that mobilizes the entire North of Brazil. The native Indians create a spectacular Carnival that is quite different from the one in Rio but no less impressive. This incredible opera in the jungle transforms the whole region into one big cultural centre.

Hardly anyone in the world knows this incredible location and its great cultural value. Imagine! A small island in the River Amazon, 400 kilometres from Manaus in the middle of nowhere!

For 3 nights in a row two groups known as oxen confront each other. One team is coloured blue, the other red. Even the main sponsor Coca-Cola has to put some of its advertising in blue to avoid taking sides. Every night the "oxen" put on a completely different programme although the topic is always the same: the presentation of native Indian myths, the struggle between man and nature, virgins who are swallowed alive by monster snakes or carried away by giant birds of prey, man-sized ants who the Indians fight with bows and arrows from their tree-houses. All this is accompanied by a live band with hundreds of drummers playing music especially composed for this event, and huge formations of dancers in brightly coloured clothing. Among them all is the "cunhã Poranga" - the most beautiful woman of the tribe.

The stage scenery is of gigantic size and is always being changed, with figures up to 20 metres high which spit fire and transform themselves from native Indians into anaconda snakes. In the middle of all this are the holy symbols of the two carnival blocks, the white ox of Garantido ("guaranteed") and the black ox of Caprichoso ("capricious").

At the climax of the show the oxen enter the arena, wild and threatening, greeted with great enthusiasm by their supporters in the stands.