Taking advantage of a Madeiran tradition, the Carnival Festival seeks to keep its distinct popular roots intact.
The dreams of youth and the desires of seasoned merrymakers are expressed in the Grand Parade on the Saturday of Carnival (21 de Fevereiro). Various groups and samba ("Sonho de um dia", "Cariocas", "Turma do funil", "Geringonça" and "Veteranos da Folia") schools take part in it and fill the main streets of Funchal with music and merriment, when thousands of dancers pass by in their dazzling costumes, infecting, in turn, the multitudes which throng the sides of the avenues.
It is a week of "madness" with a healthy streak running through it, as Carnival invades the hotels and transforms them into show places with decorations and contagious entertainment, as visitors are given a taste of parody.
In this atmosphere of effusive merriment, initiatives which surprise us with their creativity and imagination swarm about, and spontaneity marks the creators of the witticism, the joke, the comedy, or the daring caricature which is presented in a wholesome manner in the Tramps' Parade held on the Tuesday of Carnival (24 de Fevereiro).