The Carnival of Brazil, an annual festival of overindulgence and excess marking the time before Lent, is traditionally for the masses. But the celebration, which has roots in the pagan holiday of Saturnalia, is becoming a rich guy's game.

The fact tickets to the samba school shows have become too pricey for the common folks is not keeping anyone away from the fun.

A 53-year-old woman named Neuza Maria Terreira, according to The Associated Press, is so enamored of the annual event that not even the rain dampening this year's Carnival or the stink from the sewage-filled canal nearby where she watches will keep her from getting as close as she can to the celebration.

Terreira, a public school teacher, said, "Carnival is Brazil's biggest popular party, but the masses are being excluded."

She, along with hundreds of spectators, cannot afford a ticket to the Sambadrome, the large grounds where Rio's samba school parades are held.

And due to the high prices, she is compelled to watch the nightly parades from bleachers a few hundred yards from the parade route.

The make-shift viewing conditions have become a kind of event in themselves, as hundreds of spectators try to watch the parades from a nearby overpass, bringing beach chairs and barbecuing on portable grills.

"Here, we have to endure the smell of that rotten canal there," she said of her viewing spot but said, even though the people do not actual see much, "It's better than nothing."

On the other side, where people pay to see the action, there are giant floats and dancers and musicians changing into elaborate costumes in a pageant where 12 samba schools will compete for this year's title, as they prepare to enter the runway.

Although Rio's Carnival has origins in the streets, getting near the parades has become a privilege of the well-to-do.

The ticket prices vary. About 14,200 tickets are sold for around $4. The prices for most seats start at over $75 and then rise drastically.

The monthly minimum wage in Brazil is $278.

The most exclusive of the Sambadrome's seats, private boxes called "camarotes," can cost more than $42,000 a night.

Typically, the low-price tickets are bought up by scalpers who then resell them for as much as $70 each.