There’s Always Something: May in Sao Paulo

When you hear the words “Brazil” and “festival” in the same sentence, chances are pretty good you’re automatically thinking of Carnival. Carnival is, of course, an excellent reason to visit Brazil – but this is a country that enjoys its festivals, so no matter when you’re planning a trip you should check out the calendar of events. For instance, those of you planning a trip to São Paulo next month will be pleased to know there’s plenty going on in May.

Sports fans take note – Brazil is a country that loves car racing, and São Paulo kicks off the month of May right with an IndyCar race. The Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300 runs over the weekend spanning April 30-May 1, and there are pre-race events all weekend leading up to the big race on Sunday.

On a completely different note, São Paulo’s Fashion Downtown event begins the day after the car race, on May 2nd. The fashion shows run all week long, through May 7th, at Praça Patriarca. Music lovers will want to jot down a couple of dates in their calendars – May 15th, when there’s a choir festival at Club Transatlântico, and May 29th, when the Urban Music Festival takes over Anhembi Parque.

Students of immigration trends may think first of Argentina when they think of Italians in South America, but there’s a sizable enough population of Brazilians in São Paulo of Italian descent that a couple of Italian festivals in May are also on São Paulo’s calendar. Starting in early May, the heavily-Italian Brás neighborhood begins about a month’s worth of weekend festivals celebrating the Our Lady of Casaluce church in that neighborhood. Then the San Vito Festival starts in mid-May and runs through mid-June.

In addition to all of this, May is a time when Brazil isn’t as hot as it can get in the height of summer, making it an even more pleasant time to visit overall.

Whether any of the festivals and events listed here were on your itinerary to begin with, any one of them could be a fun addition to a São Paulo trip, even if none of them on their own is enough to have you scrambling to find flights to Sao Paulo. Above all, it’s important to remember that there’s something going on in this huge city no matter when you plan to visit, so your best bet is to stop by the tourist information office as soon as you can to see what’s happening while you’re in the city. You never know what fun festival you’ll get to take part in.

-by Jessica of BootsnAll

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photo by joana_digital, Milton Jung CBNSP