Rio de Janeiro is the home of Brazil's best 14 samba schools, some with individual budgets of up to $2.5 million. As the floats get bigger and bigger requiring the work of more and more artists, Rio's Department of Labor recognized the business potential of the famous street party.
Nassim Mehedff, the subsecretary of the Labor Department, explains why the city began providing free classes that teach people how to make costumes:
Now [the carnival] is becoming an industry, entertainment industry. They provide jobs and income for people during the whole year, not only a kind of two or three day festivity
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