Beer’s Scarce, Flesh Isn’t, as Rio’s Great Annual Party Begins

RIO DE JANEIRO — Even a beer shortage failed to dampen spirits Saturday as Brazilians, free of two decades of military dictatorship, kicked off Carnival with wild abandon.

Perspiration streamed down scantily clad bodies as merrymakers gyrated to samba strains and crowded into clubs, hotel ballrooms and costume parties all over town.

The annual festivities--nominally linked to the beginning of Lent--were well under way by midnight Friday, despite heavy showers and a citywide shortage of beer, as people began the four-day blowout. Street parades and gala balls also lit up the northeastern cities of Salvador and Recife.

The Sugar Loaf Ball, at the base of Rio’s famous mountain of the same name, carried a theme of Halley’s Comet, and a huge papier-mache spaceman hovered over the dance floor.