

Cordão do Boitatá started in 1997, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, through the initiative of Kiko Horta, Thiago Queiroz, and Cristiane Cotrim, bringing together friends, musicians, and artists with different backgrounds. They were inspired by popular festivals, and their masters, such as Pixinguinha, Cartola, Xangô da Mangueira, Hermeto Pascoal, Chico Buarque, and Jacob do Bandolim among many others who inspired and integrated the group's repertoire from this moment to nowadays.
Moved by play and care for musical quality, there began a grandiose and popular party that became the spark for the revival of Rio's street carnival.

Since then, the bloco has taken shape, grown in audience size and the number of musicians involved in its now two-day festivities, the well-known pre-carnival street parade, and the Multicultural Ball in Praça XV, without abandoning the essence of play, costumes, and respect for the street.
The traditional pre-carnival parade currently takes thousands of people through the downtown streets of Rio de Janeiro. Its powerful orchestra has up to over 100 musicians in a gathering of amateur and professional musicians from symphony orchestras, bands, blocks, universities, and samba schools. Winds, strings, and percussion sing original arrangements of songs ranging from Villa-Lobos' "Trenzinho do Caipira" to composers Fela Kuti and Abdullah Ibrahim, as well as traditional marchinhas and sambas, afro-sambas, afoxés, maxixes and frevos by maestros such as Capiba, Duda and Spock. Even an unusual arrangement of Bob Marley's samba-reggae is part of this great musical melting pot of carnival diversity and joy.
