Barra Olympic Park transformed into outdoor dance hall as foreign tourists discover 'forró'
Every evening, visitors to the main Olympic cluster are able to enjoy concerts from Brazilian bands and try their hand at some local dance moves
On a chilly Thursday (11 August) evening in Barra, the Forró Caramuela band fired up the action in Barra Olympic Park (Photo: Rio 2016/Saulo Pereira Guimarães)
The musical genres most normally associated with Rio de Janeiro are samba and bossa nova. But at the Barra Olympic Park on the evening of Thursday (11 August), it was music more normally associated with northeastern Brazil that had international sports fans dancing outside the venues.
It is not the first time that foreigners have fallen in love with forró music. According to legend, it was either British railway engineers in the early 1900s or US military personnel in the Second World War who gave the music its name: 'for all.'
Forró bands are nearly always comprised of an accordionist, a triangle player and a zabumba drummer, plus assorted singers and dancers. On Thursday night in Barra Olympic Park, it was the members of the Forró Caramuela band who set the stage of the Rio Fest on fire.
Federico Mecolalde from Argentina tried his best to follow the rhythm (Photo: Rio 2016/Saulo Pereira Guimarães)
Unsurprisingly perhaps, it didn't take long before Latin American tourists were trying to move their feet in forró time. The dance is a relatively simple two-step, especially compared to samba.
Peruvian Lionel Ramón enjoyed the sound and said it had a lot in common with the salsa rhythms of the Caribbean.
Lionel Ramón came all the way to Rio from Peru for the Olympic Games (Photo: Rio 2016/Saulo Pereira Guimarães)
There is much more to come this month. Every evening until 21 August there will be concerts of Brazilian music in Barra Olympic Park.
