Many people claim that the first Queen show at Rock in Rio had a estimated public of 250.000 people. They're wrong. Partially.
What's official, or at least from Rock in Rio management - more than 200.000 people sang Love of My Life with Freddie the first day. But the estimated public for that day was a whooping 470.000 (!) though 250.000 was the estimated public for the 2nd Queen show.
I don't know if 470.000 people were there for the whole day, but not everyone saw Queen, and over 200.000 stayed to see Queen (That number seems to be at around 350.000, according to someone who was hired to recound that public).
There are several sources, but I'll post a few... link link link (This one mentions that 470.000 were singing We Are The Champions with Freddie)
So yes, the estimated public for the 1st day was 470.000 and 250.000 for the 2nd day.
Roger was just repeating what had been said for years. That doesn't make it gospel fact.
This may be a new concept to you, Gerry, but someone has come forward with new information. And when this happens, we need to adjust our views or we are left in the dust with obsolete information, at which point we're completely useless as contributors to the ongoing dialogue.
Bruno - excellent job, sir ! This is a substantial find.
The Real Wizard wrote:
Roger was just repeating what had been said for years. That doesn't make it gospel fact.
This may be a new concept to you, Gerry, but someone has come forward with new information. And when this happens, we need to adjust our views or we are left in the dust with obsolete information, at which point we're completely useless as contributors to the ongoing dialogue.
Bruno - excellent job, sir ! This is a substantial find.
Thanks! I'm pretty sure that Roger was just quoting other sources, indeed. Maybe we should contact him or Brian?
To be honest other acts also quoted those numbers, like Whitesnake here: link
That's just info that's been (incorrectly) avaliable and people just pass it along because the info that we had avaliable in the past mention that *at least* 250.000 were there at the end of the show. Then websites claimed that 250.000 people was the official number, which it wasn't.
Recently there are several websites claiming it was 350.000, and I've been told that those numbers came from people who had to recount the public and give an estimative, and according to them at the very least 350.000 people were there at the end of the show. However, as I mentioned the *official* numbers are these - 470.000 went to the venue that day. There are other websites and TV channels claiming that 470.000 were there at the end of the show - one of them being Rede Globo, the TV channel that filmed the shows. And with Queen being the biggest act in the world at the time, after a successful 1981 show (Music critics said that the show was anthological), everyone was excited to see Queen, so I bet that they had the biggest crowd.
I emailed RIR myself and they said "Everything regarding our history is on our website, check it out". Generic, but they're confirming the official numbers posted.
Sorry for the poor english.
Poor English? Yours is excellent !!!
Can you provide a source claiming 350,000 ? I'd just like to have some proper footnoting on my website.
For sure, the biggest crowd was for Queen. Their cultural relevance in South America in the 80s cannot be overstated.