page_title: Rock in Rio
section_title: Rock in Rio
hierarchical_section_title: Rock in Rio / Rio de Janeiro / Rock in Rio
caption_attribution_description: English: Queen at Rock in Rio Deutsch: Queen bei Rock in Rio
context_page_description: Rock in Rio is a recurring music festival originating in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It later branched into other locations such as Lisbon, Madrid and Las Vegas.
  Eight incarnations of the festival have been held in Rio de Janeiro, in 1985, 1991, 2001, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019, eight in Lisbon, in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018, three in Madrid in 2008, 2010 and 2012 and one in Las Vegas, in 2015. Brazilian entrepreneur and advertiser Roberto Medina was responsible for the inception and organization of the festival, as well as moving the 2004 edition to Lisbon, while controversially keeping the brand "Rock in Rio". In 2011, Rock in Rio returned to its original location, Rio de Janeiro, with a new line-up of singers and groups.
  Rock in Rio is one of the largest music festivals in the world, with 1.5 million people attending the first event, 700,000 attending the second and fourth, about 1.2 million attending the third, and about 350,000 people attending each of the three Lisbon events.
  In May 2018, Live Nation Entertainment acquired a majority stake in the festival, with Medina continuing to manage the festival's operations.
context_section_description: The first edition of the festival was held from January 11–20, 1985. Queen, George Benson, Rod Stewart, AC/DC, and Yes were the headliners, each occupying top spot for two nights (Benson, however, ceded it to James Taylor for their second night in the same bill, due to the huge delay Taylor's extended performance had caused to his concert two days before). About 1.4 million people attended the 10-day-long festival.
  Rock in Rio in numbers
  The City of Rock, which was built for the festival, covered an area of 250,000 m² (around 2.7 million square feet)
  1,600,000 litres of beverages were served, using 4 million plastic cups.
  900,000 hamburgers.
  500,000 pizza slices.
  McDonald's sold 58,000 hamburgers in a single day, which was a Guinness World Record until the fourth edition in 2011, where 79,000 hamburgers were sold by Bob's.
  The full list of artists who performed at Rock in Rio:
  
  
   
  11/01 Friday
  Queen
  Iron Maiden
  Whitesnake
  Baby Consuelo e Pepeu Gomes
  Erasmo Carlos
  Ney Matogrosso
  12/01 Saturday
  George Benson
  James Taylor
  Al Jarreau
  Gilberto Gil
  Elba Ramalho
  Ivan Lins
  13/01 Sunday
  Rod Stewart
  The Go-Go's
  Nina Hagen
  Blitz
  Lulu Santos
  Os Paralamas do Sucesso
   
  14/01 Monday
  James Taylor
  George Benson
  Alceu Valença
  Moraes Moreira
  15/01 Tuesday
  AC/DC
  Scorpions
  Barão Vermelho
  Eduardo Dusek
  Kid Abelha e os Abóboras Selvagens
  16/01 Wednesday
  Rod Stewart
  Ozzy Osbourne
  Rita Lee
  Moraes Moreira
  Os Paralamas do Sucesso
  17/01 Thursday
  Yes
  Al Jarreau
  Elba Ramalho
  Alceu Valença
   
  18/01 Friday
  Queen
  The Go-Go's
  The B-52's (with Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth)
  Lulu Santos
  Eduardo Dusek
  Kid Abelha e os Abóboras Selvagens
  19/01 Saturday
  AC/DC
  Scorpions
  Ozzy Osbourne
  Whitesnake
  Baby Consuelo e Pepeu Gomes
  20/01 Sunday
  Yes
  The B-52's (with Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth)
  Nina Hagen
  Blitz
  Gilberto Gil
  Barão Vermelho
  Erasmo Carlos
   
  Both Queen shows were filmed (early on January 12 and January 19) and broadcast throughout Brazil by Globo. Each show was watched by nearly 200 million people in over 60 countries and in front of 80,000–100,000 people for each night setting a world record for the biggest paying audience ever at the time. It was later broadcast in the United States on MTV as "Queen: Live in Rio".
  Iron Maiden was the only non-Brazilian act to play just one concert at the festival (on its opening night, headlined by Queen), due to other bookings, while every other international act performed twice. During the song "Revelations", lead singer Bruce Dickinson hit himself accidentally with a guitar and cut his eyebrow. Dickinson continued to sing in spite of heavy bleeding. They performed in front of a crowd of 100,000 people.
  The Go-Go's broke up after their two Rock in Rio performances, (headlined by Queen and Rod Stewart) though they would later reunite in the 1990s. The two Rock in Rio shows were the debut and swansong for short-tenured Go-Go's member Paula Jean Brown, who had replaced Jane Wiedlin. (Wiedlin would return to the reunited 1990s lineup.)
  Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, at the time Talking Heads drummer and bass player, respectively, took part at the B-52's concerts. They joined the band from the third song on and played along with them for the remainder of the performance.
  The January 20 appearance of the B-52's would turn out to be their last with guitarist Ricky Wilson, who died from AIDS in October of that year as the band was finishing their next album.
  Initially, Def Leppard was scheduled to play at the festival. However, they dropped out about two months before the event, due to delays on the recording process of the album Hysteria. Eleven days before the date Def Leppard would have played at the festival, drummer Rick Allen suffered an accident that cost him his left arm. They were replaced by Whitesnake.
caption: Queen performing in 1985.
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