Sipping champagne, corporate executives in shorts and company T-shirts ogle Carnival samba queens as the women clad in sequins, feathers and glittery make-up strut their stuff at Rio's Sambodrome. The atmosphere at "Samba Carioca" is laid-back and those present are mostly executives for the French energy giant GDF-Suez, Brazilian bankers and bosses of multinational oil companies lured by Brazil's huge underwater oil reserves.

World celebrities flocked to Brazil to see the scantily-clad beauty queens and elaborate floats of the country's top Samba schools compete Sunday in the fiery main event of the famed Rio Carnival. Over the next two nights, 12 schools will perform before a global television audience in the highlight of the five-day extravaganza, a fierce contest watched with the same fervor as football matches in this soccer-mad nation. The school floats are packed with dancers wearing huge headgear, feathers, sequins, body paint -- and little else.

Top samba schools take center stage at the Sambodrome late Sunday, set to dazzle crowds with giant allegorical floats and scantily-dressed beauty queens in a fiery climax to the famed Rio Carnival. Over the next two nights, 12 schools will showcase their mesmerizing allegorical pageantry before a global television audience, the highlight of a five-day extravaganza. Their floats are packed with dancers wearing huge headgear, feathers, sequins, body paint -- and little else.

With samba music and allegorical pageantry, the Brazilian Carnival pays glowing tribute this year to South Korea's ancient culture and technological prowess, and to 50 years of Korean immigration. Friday, South Korean popstar Psy was a star guest at Carnival celebrations in the northeastern city of Salvador, wowing the crowd with his "Gangnam Style" hit that made Internet history last December by clocking more than one billion views on YouTube. Saturday, he was warmly applauded as he watched the sumptuous parades of samba schools at the Sambodrome parade ground in Rio.