PowerPoint Show by Andrew

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2016

Brazil's five day festival of dancing, bare flesh and wild costumes gets underway despite Zika fears.

This year's carnival across Brazil starts under the cloud of the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus.

The floats kept on coming at the carnival which went ahead despite the current Zika virus scare which is gripping Brazil.

A dancer from the Rosas de Ouro samba school performs (left) while a member (right) has fun on the streets.

Revelers of the Aguia de Ouro samba school perform during the first night of the carnival parade at the Sambadrome in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The Zika Virus is blamed for an outbreak of serious birth defects in babies born to mothers infected while pregnant.

Performers dazzled on the streets as the annual carnival, which attracts five million people each year, got underway.

Like the rest of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro is struggling with deep recession and the economic hurt has extended to the carnival industry.

The carnival usually peaks on Sunday and Monday nights with competing samba parades famous for their choreography and extraordinary costumes.

Hundreds of people can be seen watching as the colorful parade continues through the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The carnival is continuing over the weekend across Brazil as visitors from across the globe arrive to join in the fun.

The Zika scare took a new twist with the announcement that the virus - so far believed to be transmitted almost exclusively through mosquito bites - can be detected in saliva and urine.

The carnival usually peaks on Sunday and Monday nights with competing samba parades famous for their choreography and extraordinary costumes.

Big ensembles competing in the Sambadrome say that city funding has dried up and that private sponsors are also running scared.

As the crowds increased so did the the number of performers who took in all manner of costume and culture.

The dancing continued way into the night - with millions of people on the streets enjoying themselves with the festival fun.

The administrator of the Uniao da Ilha samba school, Marcio Andre Mehry de Souza, said the financial situation had been difficult for four or five years.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populous city and its economic capital, carnival celebrations were kicked off under intermittent summer rain.

The carnival season across Brazil has started up with the organizers in Rio declaring their event the 'best on Earth'.

All manner of different designs were used to create the fabulous floats for the hugely popular carnival.

A dancer from the Unidos da Vila Maria samba school performs during a carnival parade in Sao Paulo backed by drummers.

Hours and hours of work would have gone into the design and manufacture of the dozens of colorful carnival floats.

Light bulbs were the cue here for someone when dreaming up these wacky costumes for the popular carnival parade.

An arrow-leading float takes center-stage here as the carnival continues in the streets as the crowds look on.