Destaques must be in good shape. They are always on the
spotlight, and they cannot stop singing and dancing until they
leave the runway. Individual stands on a float are known as
queijos. The main floatee's queijo may be eight meters high, about
the same height of a three-story building. Did we say that
costumes are very expensive already? They are. Very. Huge shoulder
pieces (esplendores) are attached to the queijo, since the
mid-eighties. They learned the lesson when floatee and luxury
costume competitor Mauro Rosas lost his balance and had a
fall from over 20 feet (he survived). The destaque shares the
float with flocks of floatees in
coordinated costumes.