Now an independent Samba School for Leicestershire, Sambando began as a two year project partnership between Charnwood Arts, Mantle Arts, North West Leicestershire District Council and Charnwood Borough Council. During those two years this highly successful project raised the band and performed at many events locally and around the country getting involved in a Carnival Arts project in Charnwood and the NWL 'Picnic in the Park' event. With audiences already numbering into the tens of thousands the band became fully independent in the year 2000.

A big thank you to our friend and associate artist Nela da Castro from Lisbon for coming up with the name 'Sambando!' when we were all struggling!

There were some great highlights in the project in those earl years including a Samba Dance project with Hind Leys and Burleigh Community Colleges to form a Samba Dance group, work with local brass musicians to incorporate these instruments, work on moving Sambando into a processional mode and a carnival arts project with the Shree Ram Krishna Centre youth project.