If there is no sponsor, São Paulo will not have Carnival in July, says mayor

The mayor of São Paulo, Ricardo Nunes, said this Thursday (30th) that the city may cancel plans to hold an off-season street carnival on July 16th and 17th, if there is no sponsor.

“If there is no private sponsorship, the City will not put public money into this off-season Carnival,” Nunes told reporters during a handover ceremony at a public veterinary hospital in the capital of São Paulo.

“If we were talking about a street Carnival on time, at the beginning of the year, obviously, if there was no sponsorship, we would contribute [dinheiro público] to guarantee the event”, he added.

At the beginning of last month, the São Paulo City Hall opened a sponsorship notice for the event, called “Carnival Heat”, with a minimum offer of R$ 10 million.

However, the trading session was closed on June 17 with no subscribers.

On June 25, City Hall opened a second public notice, this time with the minimum offer reduced to R$6 million. The electronic auction will take place on the 7th, at 11 am.

“The name of the sponsor will be disclosed as soon as its registration is approved, after checking all the documents presented”, said the São Paulo City Hall to the CNN, in note.

Questioned by CNN, the Municipal Secretary of Culture justified the reduction of the minimum offer in the public notice because of “the abandonment of blocks” and “readjustment of the structure of Carnival”.

Initially, 296 street blocks signed up to participate in the street Carnival this month.

However, earlier this week, City Hall said that 216 parades remain under analysis by the Technical Coordination, which considers the route and schedule of the block.

The complete list of groups interested in parading between the 16th and 17th of July in São Paulo can be accessed at this link.