Rock in Rio returns to Brazil with 250 concerts in seven days

This content was published on 31 August 2022 – 15:02

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 31 (EFE).- Rock in Rio, the largest music festival in the world, opens this Friday the doors of a new edition in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, which will offer some 250 concerts in seven days to 700,000 sold-out spectators to enjoy bands like Guns’N’Roses and Iron Maiden.

After the pause caused by the covid pandemic, which forced the organizers to postpone the editions that were planned in Lisbon in 2020 and in Rio de Janeiro in 2021, the festival returns to the Brazilian city where it was born in 1985 for its ninth edition in Brazil and twenty-first worldwide.

In this year’s edition, with music marathons scheduled for September 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 and 11, the star attractions on each of those days will be, respectively, Iron Maiden, Post Malone, Justin Bieber , Guns N’Roses, Green Day, Coldplay and Dua Lipa.

The festival begins this Friday with the heaviest rock night, in which the attractions in the main box will be the groups Sepultura, Gojira, Iron Maiden and Dream Theater, and concludes on Sunday of next week with a more pop day and in which the attractions of the “World Box” will be Dua Lipa, Megan Thee Stallion, Rita Ora and the Brazilian Ivete Sangalo.

In addition to the nearly 670 artists who will offer 507 hours of concerts, the attendees, 100,000 each of the seven nights, will be able to enjoy other attractions and an entire amusement park with two roller coasters, a giant Chicago wheel, a vertical drop elevator, a “Discovery” and a zip line that passes right in front of the main stage.

To justify the slogan chosen for this year’s edition, “the biggest and best Rock in Rio of all time”, the organizers increased the space of the so-called “City of Rock” to 350,000 square meters, to reduce crowds and clear attractions.

This expansion also seeks to avoid protests and conflicts in a Rock in Rio that will be held for the first time in the middle of the campaign of the most polarized presidential elections in the history of Brazil.

“There will be no space (for protests). The reunion (of the spectators) after the pandemic has more weight than any disagreement. Music has no side. Music will not solve the fractured Brazil but it will decompress and guarantee a moment of breathing for all the groups”, affirmed the president of Rock in Rio, Roberto Medina.

The festival, which since 2017 has been held in the Olympic Park that Rio built for the 2016 Olympic Games, will take advantage of the different gyms to set up its parallel attractions.

Arena 2 was converted into a gigantic theater in which the 25-minute musical “Uirapuru” will be staged and which, in its four daily performances, recounts the fable of the Amazonian bird that fulfills the wishes of those who listen to its song.

This Broadway-level musical will have in its box an artificial waterfall 40 meters long in which 200,000 liters of water will fall per hour.

And in Arena 3, the so-called NAVE was mounted, a project that combines audiovisual experiences and musical presentations to highlight the ecological importance of the Amazon.

In the Palco Sunset, a parallel stage for musical dialogues, the greatest exponents of Brazilian rap will be presented, such as Racionais MCs, Emicida, who will dialogue with a goespel music star such as Priscilla Alcantara, and Criolo, whose concert will have the participation of the Cape Verdean Mayra Andrade.

Another stage, Espacio Favela, will offer concerts by representatives of funk, rap and trap that have emerged in poor communities in Brazil and today stand out on music platforms.

The traditional Rock Street of this year’s edition will be dedicated to the Mediterranean countries, in which Spain will be highlighted, which will offer its musical attractions and typical gastronomy. EFE

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Rock in Rio returns to Brazil with 250 concerts in seven days