There are clearly many differences between Liverpool and Rio de Janeiro, but also a number of similarities, as the organisers of the three-day Brazilica festival will show this weekend.
The festival is a celebration of all things connected with Brazil and culminates in a carnival parade through the city centre. Liverpool's position as a port city means it has a decent sized Latin American community. This year is the fifth time the parade will take to the streets for the night-time samba parade.
Last year, an audience of around 60,000 people watched the parade. The Brazilica fringe began in 2011 with a series of events taking place in the run-up to the festival weekend. A Carnival Queen competition takes place and there will be showcases of Brazilian art, film and Bossa Nova music. Football will be celebrated in the Soccer Zone.
Such is the popularity of samba, there are more than 300 schools dotted across the UK. Liverpool's samba school was opened in 1995 and it played at the Millennium Carnival in Rio five years later.
The performance led to a determination "to bring this awesome spectacle home to Liverpool and create the first Brazilian samba carnival in the UK," the Liverpool Carnival Company's spokesperson said.
The samba carnival parade had a role to play in the city's capital of culture celebrations four years ago.
