BRAZILIAN WINTER WARMER An Online festival filled with cultural goodies for your Festive Season!

An Online festival filled with cultural goodies for your Festive Season!

Brazilian Winter Warmer is a programme of Brazilian events that celebrates community culture. Based on the festive season and immersed in Brazilian carnival culture, BWW presents a series of in-person and online educational activities and showcases, delivered by Braziliarty in partnership with Gandaia Arts and Global Carnival Centre.

Featuring dance, singing and art workshops as well as live performances by standout artists and practitioners, BWW is a rare chance to connect directly with the energy and cultural heritage that powers carnival in Brazil.

BWW will transform festive season anxiety and winter blues with this fun, creative and inclusive programme - perfect for family and community engagement as the holidays approach.

Brazilian Winter Warmer will take place on BWW Online channels and through in-person educational sessions in partnership with Refugee Youth and Livity School as follows:

A special event, hosted by Mariana Pinho and Pax Nindi, featuring interviews with all the BWW artists and the special music guest: Rita Benneditto.

She will be performing the songs that will be used as the themes for the Afro-Brazilian and Maracatu Dance workshops and talk about her musical path. Her groundbreaking contemporary take on the ancestral songs of the Orixas produced a classic of Brazilian music - the highly acclaimed album “Tecnomacumba”.

Celebrating the 18th Anniversary of that pioneering release, Rita will share with us her latest project “Samba de Benedito'', performing an intimate live show accompanied by percussionist Ronaldo Silva from the renowned Silva family (his father Robertinho Silva is one of the living legends of Brazilian percussion!).

A series of workshops with DIY making ideas for the festive season run by Gandaia Arts (Selva Project) and JUNKANEW. Sustainability is at the heart of our approach - so come learn how to recycle and upcycle your way into colourful carnival style.These workshops will be released in the mornings, so you can gather your ideas and materials to join us and make your own festive decor at home with your family!

To apply please fill the form:

Samba de Chula Singing Workshop: traditional samba with the deepest roots from Santo Amaro - Bahia - North East Brazil

Afro-Brazilian dance workshop: a traditional dance style of the carnival Afro Blocos from Salvador - Bahia - North East Brazil

At the closing online event we will showcase the results of all the BWW educational outreach sessions hosted at Refugee Youth groups: Girls Group in Hackney and A.P.O.W. in Croydon. You can also be part of it, by sending us photos or videos of your DIY Festive Decor!

We will also interview the person behind the beautiful visual identity of the Project: Luang of Senegambia.

To end on a high note, we bring you the Brazilian/Balkan duo Simone Sou & Oleg Fateev. Master players and kindred spirits, they will perform a cozy home concert for us featuring their latest collaboration “Small World”. Percussion and accordion - rhythm and melody - Sou and Oleg create a passionate mix of their musical worlds – Brazil and Moldava. Inspired by traditional and contemporary sounds, since 2010 the duo has developed their own compositions and here they present songs and instrumental themes as a celebration of love and friendship.

Brazilian Winter Warmer is a collaboration between Braziliarty, Gandaia Arts and the

Global Carnival Centre. Braziliarty is a social enterprise committed to promoting Brazilian arts and culture. Gandaia Arts is an arts organisation dedicated to the dissemination of Brazilian culture through education and performance. Global Carnival Centre is a research hub and creative agency for the carnival arts.