The ultimate Carnaval app promises to help you find Rio’s moving parties

For decades, finding the right place to celebrate at Rio de Janeiro’s famous Carnaval street parties involved a bit of legwork. The festival, which officially runs from February 20 to 21, is made up of lots of individual parties that move around: Each is hosted by a bloco, a group led by musicians and dancers. They parade down streets for a few blocks or a few miles. Making sure that revelers can find a bloco to party with is the goal of the app Manda a Loc.

Manda A Loc (“send your location pin” in colloquial Brazilian Portuguese) aims to gather blocos onto a single map of Rio and other cities across Brazil. Users can look up parties that are happening near them now, or search for events up to a week in advance. Each moving party is marked by a pin. Select one, and the user is presented with a card providing information on the event’s name, location, start and end times, and options to copy the address or purchase tickets if it’s a closed event. There is also an option to automatically request an Uber, particularly useful for tourists who are not familiar with the city.

The app is still new. It was launched just three months ago, in preparation for this year’s festivities. But it has already gained traction with Rio’s party organizers: There will be around five registered parties on a slow Tuesday night, and over 40 on a Saturday. Not bad, considering Carnaval hasn’t actually started yet.