Party Party

The big birthdays in Brazil seem to be for ages 5 and 15, so when my eldest was invited to the 6th birthday party of one of his classmates last week we imagined a fun-filled but fairly routine affair. Not so.

As we approached the "party rooms" (Brazil is awash with professional party venues of all shapes and sizes) we were greeted by clowns and a live band, and invited to add our gift offering to the mountain of wrapped presents piled against two walls of the large entrance area.

Climbing the stairs to the main reception room we passed through two enormous floors of arcade games, soft play areas and go-cart tracks, accompanied by the happy screams of over 100 children. It took a few moments to realise they were all there as part of the same birthday party - I thought they were literally just normal visitors to a public arcade.

The main reception room was heaving with some 200 parents and relatives enjoying canapés and drinks, while children raced around snatching candy floss, freshly-popped popcorn, hot dogs and fizz from a whole host of vendors who had been brought in especially for the occasion, along with a dozen face painters, acrobats and puppeteers.

Two photographers and a video crew spent the next 6 hours crawling around the 3 floors of screaming children until we were approached midnight, the kids high as kites and bouncing off the walls thanks to several gallons of fizz. As the lights dimmed I assumed it was for the birthday cake ceremony, only to hear an announcement that the hot buffet and creperie were now open. At which point I stifled a serious yawn and wished I hadn´t gone for it so majorly with the canapés. Another hour of craziness and gluttony went by before the lights dimmed again and this time it really was the birthday cake. With a fanfare from the live band, a large Ben Ten capsule was lowered from the ceiling, revolved several times whilst being accompanied by scary-looking indoor fireworks, and out leapt the birthday boy to blow out his candles. All great fun but highly bemusing for an English mum whose idea of a lavish party was a date with Ronald McDonald and 10 of her son´s closest friends.