Overshadowed by the more glamorous Rio and its party atmosphere Sao Paulo is seen as the more serious side of Brazil but filled with art house cinema and offbeat theatre, the feel is more eccentric than you might expect. The underlying vibe is one of grown up fun without the frivolity and excesses of the carnival.
The culture of the city is influenced by the many immigrants that have visited and stayed, huge swathes of ethnic populations give this city a sense of true diversity, home to the educated and the ambitious, the conformists and the rebels, but the one thing they all have in common is a lust for life – Scratch just below the surface to see that Sao Paulo isn’t that different to Rio after all.