The Party’s Over in Brazil; Carnival Relatively Peaceful

After four days of all-night dancing, drinking, parades and carnival frivolity, Brazilians straggled back to work Wednesday as stores, banks and supermarkets reopened.

The city was not plagued by exceptional levels of violence during the annual festival compared to other years, officials said. Fifty-one people were killed in Rio during the carnival, police said, compared to 57 during the weekend preceding the holiday.

The country’s wild pre-Lenten bash came to a close in Rio, the unofficial carnival capital, after four balls and huge street parties and samba parades that attracted thousands of city residents despite periodic thunderstorms.

In some parts of Brazil, celebrants refused to bring the party to a close. In northeastern Salvador, 1,050 miles from Rio, thousands of people Wednesday were still dancing to music blared from speakers mounted on huge trucks in a downtown square.