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Capitalist Woodstock - How Rock in Rio became the biggest entertainement event in the world.


Mal'Akh

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It was July of 1984, and only 6 months from the first edition of Rock in Rio, promoter Roberto Medina was about to cancel the event. He had heard "no" from all the 70 bands he called. So far, for most people, music events in Brazil were synonims of riots and stolen equipment. Without any artist confirming to play on the festival, Medina tried his last chance... He called his friend Frank Sinatra. They met on 1980, when Medina produced the singer biggest concert in his whole carrer, on Rio de Janeiro, for more than 180,000 people at the Maracanã Stadium. It worked. Sinatra made a press conference in Los Angeles, in which he supported the Rio de Janeiro festival. On the following day, newspapers from the whole world reported that the city would host the biggest music festival on the world. On it's first version Rock in Rio received more than 1,3 million people on 10 days of concerts and immortalized images that went throw the whole world, like Freddie Mercury conducting hundreds of thousand of people singing "Love Of My Life" in pure ecstasy. Decades later, Queen guitarist Brian May said "I can still hear their voices singing on my head".

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26 years later of the first edition, Rio de Janeiro is getting ready to host the 10th international, and 4th national edition of the festival, which takes place on September. On the last 6 years the festival only took place on Lisbon (4 times) and Madri (twice). For many years ago Rock in Rio is not only a music festival anymore. It's a company with more than 100 employees, on Brazil, Portugal and Spain. It's a poweful brand, the most valuable one on the entertainement industry, which moves hundres of millions of dollars. It's like the legendary Woodstock, which took place in 1969 on the US, reuniting 500,000 people during 3 days of festival with artists like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Joe Cocker, had taken a capitalist shower. This year's Rock in Rio will have a cost of 95 millions reais [~60 million dollars]. That value maintains an operations that includes the administration of hundreds of contracts of artists like Guns N' Roses, Elton John and Metallica, services of transport of equpiment and publicity of the event. The festival will make 30 million reais [~18 million dollars] only by selling products with the Rock in Rio brand, from sunglasses [Chilli Beans Rock in Rio series] to bubble gums [Trident Rock in Rio edition]. They will make more than 68 million reais [42 million dollars] only by selling the tickets - on December of 2010, 100 thousand tickets were sold, when only 10 out of 100 bands had been announced. Another 500,000 will be sold. The Rio de Janeiro prefecture estimates that on the last edition, in 2001, the festival moved more than 300 million dollars on the city's economy, particulary on hotel and restaurants services. This year, such number will be even bigger. 60,000 of the tickets bought are from people who do not live at Rio.

Sponsorships Millionaires

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To associate their name to the festival, 14 brands, like Itaú, Heineken, Coca-Cola, Volkswagen and Claro already invested more than 50 million reais [~30 million dollars] to sponsor and advertise the festival. (Each sponsorship fee goes from 5 million to 10 million reais). That group of sponsorships has not only interest in advertising their brand during the 6 days of festival, but also on the possibility of associating and advertising their name with Rock in Rio all year long. "Companies agree on paying more because they have the opportunity of associating their brands to the youth and music for much more time than it would be on a regular festival", says Rodolfo Medina, first son of the Rock in Rio president Roberto Medina, and vice comercial president of the company. Coca-Cola, for example, has a 15 people team of their events sector working exclusively on their Rock in Rio promotion. Until today, nothing was revealed and Coca-Cola has been keeping the campaign a secret, so far. Claro [one of the biggest mobile phones company on South America. Claro means "sure", or "of course", or even "clear".] started to organize sports events on beaches of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina, where they expose their slogan "Rock in Rio. Of course [Claro] I'll go". Some weeks ago, Kraft put on the streets their new chewing gum, special for the event: Trident Global Connection Rio. Volkswagen announced that will release special Rock in Rio editions of Gol and Fox on the second semester of this year. "Rock in Rio is THE music festival of the country and it justifies an investement bigger than the normal", says Herlander Zola, Volkswagen's marketin executive.

The different kinds of business oportunities related to Rock in Rio came from Medina's difficult in put his first event up and running. The idea of the festival came from a request from the old Brahma [brazilian beer], by that time a Medina client, that wanted to rejuvenate their brand. To the promoter, Rock in Rio would fit perfectly with the beer's request and would also help him to fulfill an old dream: To make a big music festival in Brazil. The problem is that Brahma didn't want to pay the whole festival alone. So Medina decided that he needed to create many categories of sponsorships - a model still used today. This year, Itau Bank, major sponsorship of the festival, has the right to make pre-sale to their clients, advertise it on big media vechiles and expose their brand on a privileged area of the City of Rock. On the other corner, the called "support sponsorhips", like the Bob's fast food, the Taco clothes, Submarino website [like a brazilian Amazon], TAM Airlines, english school Wizard, beauty products Niely and Estácio de Sá University - which can only advertise on their own selling points and only on their own products. Bob's, for example, will have 5 snack bars on the City of Rock during the days of festival. "Since 1993 we've been on the Rio Sambódromo during Carnival. Now we will take that experience to Rock in Rio", says Marcello Farrel, Bob's Brazil president. The brand will also create a special sandwich with the name Rock in Rio which will be sold on their almost 800 stores on Brazil.

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Although it has the name of it's original city, Rock in Rio turned into an international brand. In Portugal, which hosts the festival every two years since 2004, a research was made by the german institute GFK Metris and it revealed that for the portuguese, on 2010 Rock in Rio was a bigger and more important event than the FIFA World Cup. On Spain, the situation is similar. According to the research institute Acziona, in 2008, Rock in Rio was considered by 22% of the interviewed the most important musical event of the year. The results made the Medina family happy, and helped them to make the company even bigger. "We are on an advanced study of taking Rock in Rio to Colomby, and also Mexico, Argentina and Polony", says Rodolfo Medina. Now, they only have to finish with the only similarity Rock in Rio still have with Woodstock: the mud caused by the rain that fell on the last national editions. That is actually the reason why the moved the festival from January, brazilian summer, to October, spring.

BACK HOME

18 MILLION DOLLAR - How much Rock in Rio estimates to earn by selling Rock in Rio procuts.

31 MILLION DOLLAR - How much Rock in Rio already earned with sponsorship like Itau Bank, Coca-Cola, Heineken, Volkswagen and Claro.

42 MILLION DOLLAR - How much Rock in Rio will earn with ticket selling.

59 MILLION DOLLAR - The total Rock in Rio cost.

600,000 PEOPLE are expected to the festival this year.

100 BANDS will play, on the 3 Rock in Rio stages.

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THE BIGGEST FESTIVAL IN THE WORLD

Rock in Rio is the festival with more people by day.

ROCK IN RIO - Brazil, Portugal, Spain - 93,000 each day.

LOLLAPALOOZA - Chicago, US - 66,000 each day.

GLASTONBURY - Somerset, England - 60,000 each day.

COACHELLA - California, US - 50,000 each day.

Rock in Rio biggest publics were on Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Guns N' Roses concerts on 2001, which near 250,000 each.

WRITTEN by Anna Caroline Rodrigues

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED by Exame Magazine edition nº 989, April 6th 2011.

TRANSLATED AND TRANSCRIPTED by Lucas Surjus/Manets.

Guns N' Roses is this year headlining the biggest entertainement festival in the whole world. But well, what can I do? Haters gonna hate. :shrugs:

Edited by Mal'Akh
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Guest gunns5

headlining rock in rio, doesn't get much better for 'this' gnr. I hope they do something great as well to coincide this if you get what I mean :xmassrudolph:

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No problem, my pleasure.

I been to 2 rock in Rio's and I got to say even though its really big, I always felt download festival in the UK (donnington) was always better.

Download may be BETTER, but Rock in Rio is BIGGER. That's the point.

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No problem, my pleasure.

I been to 2 rock in Rio's and I got to say even though its really big, I always felt download festival in the UK (donnington) was always better.

Download may be BETTER, but Rock in Rio is BIGGER. That's the point.

Debatable,but why argue? Great article,appreciate you posting it :)

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Now, they only have to finish with the only similarity Rock in Rio still have with Woodstock: the mud caused by the rain that fell on the last national editions. That is actually the reason why the moved the festival from January, brazilian summer, to October, spring.

Just never, EVER do it in March.

Thanks for the post. :thumbsup:

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Guest siliconmessiah

Great for the country. I'm sure the people of Peru are very proud of their festival; but I'm going to go out a limb and say, most Americans don't care about this.

Peru? Whut?

See what I mean.

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Means nothing to american, Sunny DRE? Well, it's a shame that in one part of America Lady Gaga is headlining the biggest festival [LOLlapalooza], and in the other one, Guns N' Roses, Metallica and Red Hot Chilli Peppers are.

Americunt. cupcake fail, asshole.

Edited by Mal'Akh
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Great for the country. I'm sure the people of Peru are very proud of their festival; but I'm going to go out a limb and say, most Americans don't care about this.

Peru? Whut?

See what I mean.

American artists obviously care about it.

If you'd actually been you'd probably understand why it's such a big deal.

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SunnyDRE has to bash people from other countries to make him fell good about his. I don't know, gotta be this.

If a band had to chose between touring South America or the US, they would tour South America without thinking twice. Oh wait, Guns N' Roses did that recently, and apparently is doing it again.

If a band could chose to play Lollapalozza or Rock in Rio, be sure they would, for sure, chose Rock in Rio.

:shrugs:

And did you even read the article? "People from the country are very proud of it". It's a company with subsidiaries in other two countries and planning to open more in otehr 4 countries, in different continets. Sad to know that you're that ignorant. Rock in Rio was a festival. Now it's the most powerful entertainemnt company in the world, which makes the biggest entertainement festivals in the world on the music mainstreams: Europe and South America. US not included? I wonder why...

Edited by Mal'Akh
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I wasn't talking about you classicrawker, but I respect your opinion. But you say that US is the biggest concerts marketing nowadays... I don't know. I would say it's indeed South America. As for the US not included, Iwas talking about no Rock in Rio LA or Rock in Rio NYC, not about GN'R US Tour.

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Festival concerts are an affordable way to see many bands in one day, it's great exposure for up and coming bands, but other than that, people would rather see their favorite band in an intimate setting.

The US has 5 or 6 festival concerts. Coachella is in March, and it still gets hot there. They're spread throughout the spring/summer/fall nationally now. Some of the smaller bands wind up playing all the festivals.

Down side is an out of control crowd and weather.

Is bigger better? It looks good in record books and the feedback from a audience that big to a band is pretty intense. Depends how good of a view you have and the sound system. If Axl was going to see his favorite band (other than GNR) in the Santa Barbara amphitheater or Pasadena Rose Bowl stadium, I think he'd take the trip to SB.

The biggest things that keeps a crowd like that content are: a decent lineup, clean bathrooms, free water, good weather,the ability to hear it clearly, and a decent view.

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SunnyDRE has to bash people from other countries to make him fell good about his. I don't know, gotta be this.

Where did I bash anyone Manets?

If a band had to chose between touring South America or the US, they would tour South America without thinking twice.

You wish that was true.

I wasn't talking about you classicrawker, but I respect your opinion. But you say that US is the biggest concerts marketing nowadays... I don't know. I would say it's indeed South America. As for the US not included, Iwas talking about no Rock in Rio LA or Rock in Rio NYC, not about GN'R US Tour.

Every band/artist in the world wants to break the US market.

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You were clearly underestimating and undervaluing the country, the people and the culture, as for the festival and event by calling the country Peru when you obviously know it's Brazil. Don't pretend to be so ignorant.

As for the other two topics, you're wrong. What's the big deal about the US market? In South America they will make more money, play to bigger and liveliest crowds... What else is needed? AC/DC, Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Scorpions recorded their live DVD of their latest tour here. Paul McCartney will make an off-tour concert here late this year, on Rio, and it's rumored to be only for a DVD recording.

:shrugs:

If a band had to chose between touring South America or the US, they would tour South America without thinking twice.

You wish that was true.

Why would they play in US instead of SA? BASICALLY, a worse and smaller crowd, on a smaller venue. Less money.

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Of course he does, but the way I interpreted it, he just said on that way to underestimate and undervalue the country, the people and the culture, as for the festival and event. Like "GN'R headlining Rock in Rio? Big deal. LOL BRAZIL"

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Means nothing to american, Sunny DRE? Well, it's a shame that in one part of America Lady Gaga is headlining the biggest festival [LOLlapalooza], and in the other one, Guns N' Roses, Metallica and Red Hot Chilli Peppers are.

Americunt. cupcake fail, asshole.

This!

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