Rock in Rio Festival in Brazil

This report will analyse the rock festival called Rock in Rio that has been happening for 32 years in different cities in Brazil, Europe and United States. In 1985, in a waterlogged ground in Rio de Janeiro, 1,4 million people watched for the first time what would be the biggest rock festival of the country until nowadays.

During 10 days, 14 artists and 15 national attractions performed in a ritual of peace and love. But wasn’t easy to realise that project. Roberto Medina, the creator of this idea, had a really hard time to find someone to invest on it. Medina said that he had been in New York with a project of a huge rock festival in Latin America looking for sponsors. He also told magazines and newspapers that he had stayed in USA 40 days without an answer. After 200 businessmen have denied his ideas, Frank Sinatra’s’ manager helped him to get a sponsorship.

Furthermore, on the inaugural edition of that great festival, was buılt an arena, baptized the “Cidade do Rock,” or “City of Rock”. “To a generation of Brazilian youths who had come of age under the oppressive shadow of a military dictatorship, this meant more than even its monumental scale, success and historic collection of musical talent would suggest. For them, Rock in Rio was literally the sound of freedom, and you could make a strong case that it’s this sound that has continued to resonate down the years, legitimizing the original spirit of a franchise that has since spun off multiple sequels well beyond the borders of Brazil.” (Rivadavia, 2013)

The first festival was a success, one curiosity is when the Australian band AC/DC was inflexible about bringing their own bell that weighed 1,5 tons to be used in their famous song Hell’s Bells. Unfortunately they couldn’t play it and they had to use a bell made of plaster. All because the stage could not stand the weight of the original one. ”The great fame of the event was due to the fact that, the major international music stars do not usually visit South America, so the local audience there had the first opportunity to see near the international rock idols.” (Neto, 2013)

Since it started 17 editions already happened. In Rio only 6, meanwhile in Lisbon they made it 7 times, in Madrid 3 and Las Vegas 1. The festival is considered The Best Festival in the World by the specialized website Festival Fling.
In 2015, after the last edition in Rio, the city mayor announced that had sign a contract to ensure that the festival is going to happen again in 2017 and 2019. Eduardo Paes, the mayor also said joking that he would be waiting an invitation to the next event. ”We got the most difficult part. The Rock in Rio Festival provides all the public an unforgettable experience. On the stages we have metal, pop, rock, indie, everything.” (Medina, 2017)

According to the official Rock in Rio website we should expect for new surprises at the following event. It said that until this moment the confirmed attractions were Aerosmith, Guns n Roses, The Who, Marron 5, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bon Jovi, Billy Idol, Lady Gaga, Ivete Sangalo, Fergie, 5 Seconds of Summer, Justin Timberlake, BLITZ, Alice Caymmi and Davi Moraes. The festival will last two weeks.

One of the big attractions is the Rock City, which this year is gonna be at Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro. It means that it will be twice the size of the last one and it also has an easier access to any kind of transportation.

Inspired by Africa, the new version of the Rock Street will have two artificial lakes surrounded by bars, toilets and shadow areas to relax and enjoy the breaks between shows.

Finally, for those interested on buying tickets, the initial sale of Rock in Rio Card happened in 2016. The entry cost was R$435 (adult) or R$217,50 (student and senior). Tickets will be sold again in 6th April. The age rating is 16 years old or under 16 accompanied by the legal guardian.

”Kinds of Music on Rock in Rio”

The graph shows the proportion of all kinds of music that are played on Rock in Rio Festival. As a result we can see that rock is always almost 50% in the last four editions. Additionally the average of those four seems that erudit music is the less common. However, it’s pretty clear that the festival provides all kind of music for all public, which the graph shows eight different styles. About the brasilian music we can also observe that is a considerable percentage of shows, which attract more attention and promotes their identity.

Bibiography

Brito, P. (2012). Rock in Rio é rock sim, senhor.

Retrieved from http://data-musica.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/rock-in-rio-e-rock-sim-senhor.html

Rivadia, E. (2014). The Sound of Freedom: The History of Rock in Rio
Retrieved from http://ultimateclassicrock.com/rock-in-rio/

Retrieved from https://prezi.com/_el9ratfmbbv/rock-in-rio-history/

Brito, P. (2012). Graph – A musica no Rock in Rio

Retrieved from http://data-musica.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/rock-in-rio-e-rock-sim-senhor.html