That change of pace at Brazil's most popular festival surprised many critics and purists who said they yearned for the Carnival celebrations of past years that, while entertaining people, highlighted the country's social inequalities or served as political protests, which nowadays are completely absent.
Cultural critic Artur Xexeo attributed that tendency to the fact that the great majority of the samba schools today have sponsoring companies that contribute millions of dollars to help stage the show and "they don't want to see any criticism".
