Rio's carnival was canceled in 2021 due to the pandemic. The public holiday will this year not coincide with the colorful samba school parade, held in the "sambodromo," or Sambadrome, which has been postponed to April. The city's free and wildly hedonistic street parties, known as blocos, have been scrapped.

Grégoire Putteman, a party organizer who DJs as Craig Ouar, called the city's decision to cancel the blocos "hypocritical," as Rio is largely back to normal after suffering one of the world's worst COVID-19 outbreaks. He said he had to cap his Domply party at 1,500 people, given the need to check attendees' vaccination status, and would only be able to offer free entrance up to a point. In prior years, he could bring in as many as 3,000 revelers.