Event Review:
Partying in The City of God
a.k.a
Rio De Janeiro
Getting down in a Favela Warehouse Party

First thing is first what is a Favela? For those that have seen the award winning film City of God or Tropa De Elite, you will know what a favela is. For those that haven't heres a basic explanation. 

A favela (Brazilian Portuguese for slum) is the generally used term for a shanty town in Brazil. Favelas are known to have many problems with drug-related crime and gang warfare. In addition to these problems, favelas consist of units of irregular self-constructed housing that are typically unlicensed and occupied illegally. These areas of irregular and poor-quality housing are often crowded onto hillsides, and as a result, these areas suffer from frequent landslides during heavy rain. 

So sounds like a pretty rough place no? Well it's important to know that although they do have issues and aren't exactly the safest place on the earth, the majority of residents are not criminals and it is really a few bad apples that spoil the bunch. People live in favelas because they can't afford anything else. But who's to say they don't know how to have fun? 

Baile Funk was born as a kind of party especially for dancing. They came up only in the favelas and poor areas of Rio de Janeiro.

Baile Funk started in the 60s with the aim to give an option to party for the poor and underprivileged people of the suburbs and favelas.

At the beginning the sort of music that was played was soul and funk from the USA. Some years after, more and more different influences happened. At the end of the 80s with the appearance of electronic/digital music, Funk music changed and somehow emerged as Electro, Freestyle and later was influenced by Miami Bass.

With the beginning of Miami Bass, Baile funk turned into as we know it today.

This kind of Baile Funk beat has no more link to the real funk music from the past, but it became the name of this kind of music as we know it. 

The lyrics (which are in Portuguese) are usually very sexual and explicit as are the dances which go along with this music. MIA is probably the most well known artist to North Americans, that produces Baile Funk, but other well known North American artists like Lil Jon have even made some Baile Funk tracks. 

So now that you have an idea of where the party was and what the music was, let me breakdown the night for you. 

There are companies which run vans up to the favela on Sunday nights. These vans are mainly for foreigners as the party consists mostly of residents from the favelas ( My guess is there are so little foreigners because of the bad rap favelas have for being dangerous). The van picked me (and a hand full of other foreigners) up at a local hostel in Impanema (a neighbourhood in Rio) at 11pm. It was about a 25 minute drive up to the favela.

To be honest I didn't know what to expect and the thought of being robbed was definitely in my head prior to going (although after being there for 5 minutes i started to feel rather comfortable). We pulled up to this big warehouse that had been transformed into something like a barebones nightclub. The name of the venue was Castelo Das Pedras which translates roughly to mean castle of stones. There was a massive line-up, easily a thousand people. Luckily as part of the deal with the van company, you were given line by pass and walked right in. 

The first thing i noticed was how loud the bass was. From outside the club it was pounding harder then many clubs do when your inside them. We go into the warehouse and it is absolutely packed. From the research I did, it is normal for this particular party to have 2000 - 3000 people regularly, and I would say that was no overstatement by any means. 

I think what sealed the deal for me for this party experience was the overall vibe and atmosphere. The whole thing was so… Raw. The venue was by no means elaborate or fancy. As I said it was pretty much a warehouse with a lazer, fog machine, a couple lights, and one killer sound system. Very minimal.



There was even a dance competition during the middle of the night as can be seen in these videos.




Drinks were stupid cheap (as they are pretty much everywhere in South America) a beer costed $1.50 CND and a Vodka/Redbull (with 5 ounces or so of vodka) was only $9 CND. The music, Baile Funk, which I have come to love is amazing for dancing. Lastly and maybe most importantly the crowd. Drug dealers and murders? Maybe a couple but you'd never know.

  

Everyone was there for one reason, to have a good time, and maybe get hopped up enough to make some bad decisions, perhaps play a little game called just the tip, just for a second, just to see how it feels lol.

At around 5am the van picked us back up and drove us back into Impanema. I made it home safe and sound, although fairly inebriated. I'm hoping the pictures and videos give you an idea of the party but I really don't think they do it justice. This is one party you must check out if you are in Rio. Sometimes the more simple the better, I say.

Aaron

“Getting down to business, so you can get to the business of getting down”