With high vaccination rates, Brazil’s event sector hoping to restart the party

For many Brazilians, going for more than a year without Carnival is their worst nightmare. In 2020, the country’s favorite holiday came and went just weeks before the coronavirus laid its first punch on Brazil’s jaw, but very quickly all sorts of public, corporate, commercial, and sporting events began being canceled amid the pandemic’s spread.

And then, in 2021, the unthinkable happened: Carnival was called off.

With social distancing being arguably the most important measure to fight the Covid-19 crisis, Brazil’s events sector had no choice but to slam on the brakes and rethink its entire business model. Indeed, the industry was one of the first to stop working in 2020, and will be among the last to get back in business now.

Now, after 18 months of restrictions, the hope is that widespread vaccination and pent-up demand for events will allow the sector to get back on its feet. Almost 55 percent of Brazil’s total population is fully immunized against the coronavirus, and nearly 75 percent have taken at least one vaccine dose.

According to data from Brazilian event producers association Abrape, more than 590,000 events took place around the country in 2019, before the pandemic hit. The sector accounted for over 4.3 percent of the country’s GDP, with an annual turnover of BRL 270 billion (USD 48.49 billion). That same year, the events industry generated roughly BRL 75.4 billion in consumption, BRL 4.56 billion in federal taxes, and...