Rio Carnival

So think about all your big festivals that you get abroad.

So like Oktoberfest, Brazil Carnival, anything that is, we've got loads of the ski festivals as well.

So anything that's outdoor, that's music related and really kind of where everyone kind of congregates at certain times of the year that's our Contiki festival section and then we've got one more coming next year which is Lux so anyone that wants sort of a luxury way of of doing a traveling experience so we've got something now for everyone within just Contiki and it's a really easy way to kind of have now it's like I think having conversations with your customers even easier rather than where do you want to go what do you want to do when you're away and that's why I think that what Bethany said so important because you you don't want to sell people the holiday that you love you want to ask those questions those qualifying questions to go what is it that you love to do when you're away and finding then the trip for them even just within Contiki should be really easy now with our new travel style so yeah we're really excited about it

and there's so much in there isn't there are you expecting I mean I guess certain destinations lend themselves to certain types of these so If I think about Thailand, for example, your island hopping one is an obvious fit.

So it's bigger than Christmas.

And if you imagine like the Rio Carnival crossed with the Wicker Man, it's sort of like that.

So the Bonfire Society is basically... had these huge effigies of people that they're going to burn.

So it might be people they're a bit annoyed with.

I met the teachers, I met the students, and I sort of documented their, um, their practice.

And now these students play at Rio Carnival every year.

He grew it from four students to 150 students now.

Wow.

The Champions Parade.

It sounds like I've always wanted to go to Carnival in Rio.

So there you go.

It sounds wonderful.

So one, you have less experience to draw on.

Now, there is an element where I'm 60, you kind of know what you like, OK? You're not going to persuade me to go to the Rio Carnival, right? It's going to be noisy and crowded and I'm going to get my wallet back.

Persuade

me, I think it's amazing.

Samba drums rattled you right in the chest, steel pans echoed off the brickwork and the sea of Hawaiian shirts was so loud it practically required protective eyewear.

Walking through Barron's Quay and down to the High Street, the vibe was less sleepy Cheshire market town and more Rio Carnival on the Weaver.

What I love most about this madness though is the sheer lack of cynicism.

Try finding another event where a toddler covered in mango ice cream, a teenager trying and spectacularly failing to conquer a mechanical surfboard and an octogenarian in a deck chair sipping a cocktail can all share the exact same space without an ounce of awkwardness.

... "Hello?" [laughs] But-

Yeah, I remember being in Brazil at the Rio Carnival, and, um, with my friends from the ship, but we were there for a couple of nights, and we were walking down, um- What's the name of that lovely beach? Um, uh, the Copacabana, and we're walking down there, and this gorgeous, gorgeous Brazilian guy came up and started talking to me in Portuguese, and I was mesmerized by him.

I was like, "Yeah.

Okay."

There you go.

Stewart admitted in his 2012 autobiography to unconscious plagiarism of the Ben Ho song, which he had heard while attending the Rio Carnaval in 1978.

He also admitted that he was consciously lifting the song's signature synthesizer riff from the string arrangement of Bobby Womack's If You Want My Love, Put Something Down On It.

If you want my love.