Rio Olympics 2016 Themed Party Ideas | Rio Carnival style Summer Olympics Party inspiration, decorations fancy dress & food

The Summer Olympics are just around the corner and in 2016 they are being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil which is known for its fun party atmosphere.

When I think of Rio, the celebration of the Carnival immediately comes to mind. This party atmosphere carries over to daily life with evenings filled with dancing, drinking and Samba music. When I think of Rio, I think of bright colours, music, dancing and great food and cocktails. I used these vibrant pictures of the Rio carnival to help me plan my Rio 2016 Olympic party: The jubilant atmosphere of the Carnival will carry over to the celebration of the 2016 Olympic Games and you can experience the whole excitement and vibrancy of Rio carnival and the Rio Olympics 2016 with your very own Summer Olympic party from the comfort of your own siting room!!

 

Rio 2016 Olympic Party Decorations

Using a combination of brightly coloured fabrics, Brazil flags and paper decorations you can easily achieve a fabulous Rio Carnival themed Olympic party without breaking the bank. This range of bright decorations range is perfect to add colour to your Olympic Rio party around the outside of a room or in trees outside. 

This quirky mini Rio Carnival tissue garland in bright pink, green, yellow, purple and orange on a 5 metre ribbon works really well strung along the edges of a room or along a mantlepiece.

 

For some Brazilian inspired decorations, you can add a few tropical touches including this Rio carnival party tissue pineapple. These fun tissue pineapple decorations works well as a table centrepiece, on a mantelpiece or to brighten up a window sill. You get 2 in a pack and at 30cm high are great value so you can have a few scattered around and are perfect for tropical and Hawaiian themed parties. These inflatable parrots are really low cost and look great in house plants or sitting in trees outside. 

 

 

The Brazilian flag is also a great iconic image and you can use Brazilian flag posters, bunting and Brazilian table flags as a great low cost way to cover walls and decorate your Rio Olympic party.

 

For a more international feel, these international olympic party flags would look great around the outside of a room and at 12ft long they would fill a whole wall if hung up in rows as in the image above.

 

Rio Olympic Party Cocktail Accessories

Rio party fruit straws – how cool are these pretty straws? These brightly coloured tropical straws are decorated with brightly coloured decorative tissue fruit and come in a selection of 5 different fruit designs. Perfect for a summer cocktails at your Rio Olympic party. 

 

 

Rio party cocktail umbrellas – Well it simply wouldn’t be a proper cocktail without a cocktail umbrella. This pack of 12 tropical party cocktail umbrellas come in assorted colours and are so cheap, why not have a few?

 

Rio Olympic Party Fancy Dress

I love Rio carnival costumes, but they can be a bit risqué and not to mention cold for the British climate, so these gorgeous Rio carnival headdresses are perfect to achieve that Rio carnival look at your Olympic themed party. These feather headdress come in a range of vibrant colours and are great quality. Team with a feather boa and a corset for full on Rio carnival glamour. 

I also love the iconic style of Carmen Miranda and her famous fruit headpiece. How about this fabulous Brazilian sequinned cha cha dress with coloured frills at the bottom and yellow puffy sleeves comes complete with a fruit headpiece to match?

 

 

For the men or the less brave, this parrot costume is fantastically colourful and perfect for a Brazilian Rio themed Olympic party It includes the red coloured body with coloured feather shape wings, head piece featuring a parrots head and beak and some black parrot feet. This fancy dress costume will fit up to 44" chest, trousers not included.

 

 

Rio 2016 Olympic Party Music

Rio carnival music such as soca or samba is great music to play for dancing at your Rio themed Olympic party. You can find some great Brazilian and samba radio stations here: streema.com and tunein.com.

But you may also want to have some other inspiring songs to have ready for listening to before the big events. I've put together this playlist of some classic sporting soundtracks:

• We Are The Champions - Queen
• Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
• Welcome to the Jungle - Guns N Roses
• Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now - McFadden & Whitehead
• Let's get it started - The Black Eye Peas
• The final countdown - Europe
• Start me up - Rolling Stones
• All together - The farm
• Lose Yourself - Eminem

 

Rio 2016 Olympic Party Food & Drink

Feijoada (Pork & Black Bean Stew)

This is the Brazilian national dish and a great crowd pleaser. It can be made in advance and then just heated up on the day of your Rio Olympic party. Serves 8-10 1kg dried black beans 400g sun-dried beef, cut into pieces, or 400g smoked pork ribs 400g smoked bacon, cut into chunks 8 tbsp olive oil 2 onions, finely chopped 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped 300g large smoked sausages, cut into big chunks (Portuguese sausage is best, but chorizo will do) 300g small Portuguese spicy sausage or chorizo (regular sausages will suffice here if neither spicy versions can be found) 400g salted pork ribs (or any other cut of pork on the bone from the butcher) 1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper 5 bay leaves 1 orange, peeled, whole 1 shot of cachaça (optional, but recommended) 1 orange to serve, peeled and segmented 1 In separate bowls, soak the beans, the sun-dried beef or smoked pork ribs (whichever you are using) and the smoked bacon overnight in cold water. Change the water in the morning and continue soaking to get rid of excess fat and salt. 2 Drain the beans and put them in a very large saucepan of cold water. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, then simmer for 30 minutes until tender. 3 Rinse the soaked sun-dried beef (or smoked pork ribs) and smoked bacon well, add to the beans and cook for a further 30 minutes. 4 Meanwhile, heat a very large, heavy saucepan and pour in the olive oil, so it entirely covers the bottom of the pan. Add the onions and garlic and cook until softened. Add the sausages, salted pork ribs, black pepper and bay leaves. Pour in the cooked beans and meat and top up with water to cover them. Place the peeled orange in the centre of the pot. Let the stew simmer for 1½–2 hours or more, topping up with water as necessary, until the meat falls off the bone. Just before serving, fish out the bay leaves, add a shot of cachaça and serve with the orange segments. taken from http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/07/10-best-brazilian-recipes. Serve with rice and these delicious cheese rolls.  

 

Pão de queijo (Cheese Bread)

Cheese bread is a staple across South America, and it makes a great beach snack with ice-cold beer. Andre Morin, personalchef.moonfruit.com. Makes around 20-25 100ml milk 100ml vegetable oil Pinch of salt 250g tapioca flour 125g parmesan or vegetarian alternative, grated 1 free-range egg 1 Boil the milk with the oil and the salt, remove from the heat, put all the tapioca flour at once in the pan and mix well. 2 Add the cheese and the egg and beat the dough until smooth, then knead into a ball shape. 3 Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Let the dough cool enough to handle, then grease your hands with some oil, take small portions of dough and form golf-sized balls. 4 Line a tray with greaseproof paper and space the balls 2cm apart. Bake for about 20 minutes, until they are puffed and are golden. Serve warm.

 

Caipirinha

The classic caipirinha cocktail is a delicious summer drink perfect for serving ice cold at your Olympic party. A wonderfully refreshing Brazilian cocktail using Cachaça which you should be able to pick up a bottle in most supermarkets these days, I’ve seen it made with vodka and white rum as well but if you can, use Cachaça to ensure it’s the real deal.

Ingredients

Roll the limes on your chopping board with the heel of your hand to get all the lovely juices going, then cut them into wedges and squeeze the juice into a large 1½ litre jug, chucking the wedges in there after you’ve squeezed them. Add the sugar and ginger then spend a couple of minutes bashing and squishing it all up with the end of a wooden rolling pin to really get all those flavours going. Half fill the jug with crushed ice, and bash again. Pour in the Cachaça and stir well. Have a little taste then tweak the acidity to your liking, adding more sugar if needed. Top the jug up with more crushed ice, then tear in the mint leaves and give it a good stir. Serve and enjoy as a refreshing cocktail with friends. For more inspiration for Rio Carnival inspired Olympic party recipes, decorations, crafts and ideas visit the Party Packs Rio Olympic party Pinterest board.