Festivals of Forro Sao Paulo –
Folkdance for Everyone!

Even if you’re not usually a dancer, festivals of Forro Sao Paulo will make you want to get off of your chair, get out of those meetings, and onto your own two feet! Every year, Sao Paulo has several folkdance festivals, and these are great opportunities for visitors to the city to really get a vibe for the community and the kinds of things that local Brazilians enjoy. Contrary to popular opinion, the people of Sao Paulo love to have fun – they’re not just all about business!

One of the Forro Sao Paulo festivals is the Festival of Saint John the Northeast, which brings in some of the Latin America’s biggest folk music celebrities and dancers. In past years, some of the appearances have included Bruno & Marrone, Carlos More, and Francis Lopes – and each day of the festival, even more musicians arrive! This forro festival runs for about 4 days, and the whole point of the event is to just dance the night away! It will typically be held in a ‘sambodrome’, or a dance hall, that holds thousands of people. It’s a great way to meet new people.

That’s not the only Forro Sao Paulo festival, however. The people of Sao Paulo love their dancing, and the second annual forro event is called the Meeting of Forro University in Via Funchal. This is a one-day event with outdoor concerts, food, shopping tents and more, and of course – lots and lots of dancing.

What is it that makes this kind of music appealing? Besides the different types of instruments – it’s not uncommon to see accordions, banjos, and tambourines – the truth is that forro dancing and folk music have been around for centuries. In the early 1900s, forro in Sao Paulo was a new fad that the youth enjoyed, to the horror of their parents – but as the years progressed, folk music has become more of a link to Sao Paulo’s musical past, a kind of music that the older people appreciate while the younger people enjoy for the sake of dancing!

There are definitely some traditional dances that you’ll see at any Forro Sao Paulo event! Things like the bate-chinela, the fobo and the arrasta-pe are different moves in folkdance styles, which are entirely unique from what you’ll see at other dance events in the city! However, the style is still so popular that the areas of Campina Grande and Caruaru still compete for the title of the biggest folk festivals in the country – but fortunately for Sao Paulo, it has plenty of Forro Sao Paulo festivals to rival them all!

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