Street Fighter V: Carnaval Carnage

---

The five men were thrusting their arms out in fighting motions 'dancing' to the rhythm of the music when the police came from behind and clobbered them with their batons. The four men in front writhed with pain while the fifth eluded them, stepping back and closing my path. When the beating had stopped, the police motioned the men to move on. Man number five may have thought he had escaped a beating, but he was wrong. As he passed the military policemen, one of them delivered a blow to the back of the head as a reminder. Do not f*** with us! It was time to leave.

My Israeli gang and I had bought our way into a bloco and joined one of the trio electrico trucks that cruise down the streets of Salvador da Bahia for Carnaval. One blue tank top richer and fifty Reais poorer we joined the revellers on the street and watched the other trucks pass as we awaited our group, Traz Massa e Massa.

My dream is to fly over the rainbow, so high...Yves Larock AKA Yves TheCock turned out to be a small shorts wearing Frenchman with a gringo following but the music was good. A plethora of Brazilian acts came after with a distinct local fan base.

01:30 showtime! As we entered the cordoned-off area around the truck I could sense something wasn't quite right. The other trucks had a more subdued following but these guys were nuts. The singer was driving them crazy with his lyrics and the band was sending them into a delirium with their beats. What sounded like rubbish to you or me was ecstasy for the revellers. While the crowd within the rope bounced around like crazy, trampling us into a pulp, outside fights were breaking out every twenty seconds. The military police were having a field day. Batons were flying all over the place, punches were being thrown and people were getting seriously injured. A couple of ten minute stints of this madness and we had had enough. Leaving our truck, we came upon the scene described above.

Salvador for carnival. It had sounded promising. People everywhere who had been to it were raving about it. The best in the world, they said. Well, I haven't been to many but I would have to disagree. Unless you are a lover of axe or other Brazilian music, street fights, the smell of piss everywhere or walking through a sludge mix of spilt drinks and urine, I suggest you give it a miss. Rio's carnival has flamboyant costumes, the one in Venice has masks. This one...nada.

The last day of carnival we received our relief: David Guetta, Armin Van Buuren and Pete Tong had their own truck and were spinning tunes. It wasn't bad but Ibiza would be a more fitting setting. One day...

---

Photos

Don't Mess With These Guys
Military Police take no prisoners

Comments

[anirvan bhatttacharya]

Street Fighting
a number of fights including girl fights and just plain fighting happens of the streets. The UFC takes charge of them then. street fights is what you are looking out for.