The bright colours and raucous partying of Rio's Carnaval celebration are set to infuse this year's Cowley Road Carnival.

Organisers of the Oxford carnival, which attracts up to 25,000 people each year, travelled to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil at their own expense to taste the atmosphere and get inspiration from the flamboyant event.

Now Bethan Emmett, carnival development officer and leader of carnival band Sol Samba, wants people who come to watch to line the streets in fancy dress - as they do in Rio.

Ms Emmett said: "I want to make Cowley Road Carnival as good and as fun as it can possibly be so people can get really inspired by what they can do together.

"I have come back with so much enthusiasm and I'm really looking forward to bringing a sense of what that means to people and hoping to inspire them."

She added: "The costumes were incredible, the creative ideas, the glitter, the pomp and ceremony, are all things we can do here.

"We're not Brazil and we don't have that kind of money but I think it's more about bringing a sense of what carnival means to everybody.

"In Rio everybody who goes to carnaval is also in costume and I would love it if everyone turned up in fancy dress to the Cowley Road Carnival."

While in Brazil, Ms Emmett and fellow organiser Phil Pritchett worked at the Sambodrome school. Miss Emmett then took part in one of the performances at last week's event.

She also made contacts with samba musicians from Finland, Germany, Poland and Spain and hopes some of them will be able to take part in the parade at this year's Cowley Road Carnival, on Sunday, July 6.

Ms Emmett said: "I'm still reeling from the trip. It was absolutely amazing. It's the best show on Earth. What is so special about it is how closely it's linked to the community and I think the main lesson is what carnival can bring to a community, with young, old, black, white, rich and poor celebrating together and immensely proud to be involved.

"I would really like to bring a sense of that to Oxford."

At the end of the month Ms Emmett will start teaching samba music to 90 pupils at Larkrise Primary School, in Boundary Brook Road, so the pupils can form a band of their own in the procession.

Sol Samba's dance leader Sarah Hyams is currently visiting Salvador, in north-east Brazil, to enhance the dance side of the carnival.

Cowley Road Carnival draws from carnival traditions throughout the world and people are being invited to choose one of three themes, masquerade, dance the world, or games, which can be voted for at www.cowleyroadcarnival.org