News Rio de Janeiro’s ‘Samba City’ is the production line for the world’s biggest party: Rio Carnival It’s here in this cluster of warehouses in the city’s rejuvenated port district that the samba schools build their carnival floats and create their dazzling costumes So it is fitting that the Cidade do Samba, as it is known in Portuguese, is playing a key role in the Rio 2016 Games, which promise to take Olympic festivities to a new level Samba City is hosting Rio 2016's uniform and accreditation centre (UAC), where 210,000 accreditations and 85,000 uniform kits will be distributed About 3,000 people are currently passing through the centre each day, with that number expected to rise to 5,000 during the week leading up to the opening ceremony on 5 August Keep calm and come to Rio: foreign tourists fall in love with Olympic city A team of 600 volunteers are working at full steam and have already been enthused by the Olympic spirit “It’s a blessing to be part of this,” said 35-year-old Eduardo Braga from Bangu in west Rio “For us, the Olympic Games have already started But of course, there is still that joy and anticipation ahead of the competition itself starting ” Remnants of previous Carnival celebrations decorate Samba City (Photo: Rio 2016/Andre Naddeo) Braga is responsible for the distribution of the uniform kits that contain (bright green) trainers, socks, trousers, shirts, a raincoat, a waist pouch, a cap, a bilingual competition guidebook and a water bottle There are four different uniform colours, each one relating to the function of its user: red is for medical services, blue for the technical officials, yellow for the operational team and green for those that will interact directly with the public Uniforms for Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games unveiled Matthijs Wiersma, UAC’s general manager who is from the Netherlands, explained that the centre also serves four different client groups “You will basically see four groups here: all of the volunteers, all of our staff, third-party personnel and technical officials,” he said in perfect Portuguese “People come here, to the accreditation centre first, where they have a check-in which involves presenting their ID If everything is fine, the person will go straight to distribution, where there is a printer and laminator, and they receive their accreditation then and there This is what we call a green route They are here for five minutes and it’s ready ” Rio 2016 unveils official posters for Olympic Games A new recruit has her photo taken at UAC (Photo: Rio 2016/Andre Naddeo) Wiersma explained that people who do not already have a photo on the system go to a second section where they take their photo and then they can get their accreditation at the same distribution station One out of every three Olympic staff members, once completing the accreditation process, will then head to warehouse 7 at the Cidade do Samba to collect their uniform “When you put the uniform on for the first time, you already feel very much part of the Games, you feel a sense a pride in taking part,” says Wiersma “It is what I have been feeling working here with the volunteers ” ‘Rio 2016 is ready to welcome the world,’ says IOC after final visit before Olympic Games   Palmira Rangel, 63, is retired and decided to become a Rio 2016 volunteer for a new challenge A resident of Guaratiba in the far west of Rio, she takes a bus, a train and then a minivan – a two-and-half-hour journey – to get to Samba City every day But she always arrives with a broad smile on her face “You learn a lot on this job,” she said “I had never worked as a volunteer before I was retired without much to do But what I like to do is work and the good thing is you can make lots of friendships here ” Braga has taken a similar approach to his job As well as making friends, he has taken the opportunity to practise his English and Spanish “We meet French, Spaniards, Argentines, Canadians, Israelis; you got it all around here,” he said Palmira Rangel hands over another uniform kit at UAC (Photo: Rio 2016/Andre Naddeo)