Rock in Rio Lisboa sold 20,000 tickets to Portugal, in 3 countries
“It’s a right to be together.” This is how Roberta Medina sees the return of Rock in Rio Lisboa, after the festival was postponed due to the pandemic. In an interview with Renascença, the director of the event, recognizes that a pandemic has brought “great damage” to the festival, says that she had to adapt to new circumstances, but is confident in the return of the festive atmosphere.
The opening of doors for the first weekend is this Saturday and, in addition to tickets sold in Portugal, there are over 20,000 tickets sold outside Portugal. “There is a little bit of everyone, many Europeans, but also Brazil, Argentina, the United States”, explains Medina, who speaks of a total of 39 countries present.
In this interview in which she gives advice to festival-goers, Roberta Medina considers that Rock in Rio is not “just for parties”. “A party with many benefits around the world”, the founder of the festival would say that he is the economic daughter that the Lisbon event generates and ensuring that the event will continue in the Portuguese capital.
It’s a long-awaited return, with what feeling do you think will open the doors of the City of Rock this Saturday?
I think it feels like a dream come true. After so long, it’s almost hard to believe that we are really here, that the City of Rock is ready, how beautiful, that the team is happy. People have a huge anxiety to be together. I think it’s a celebration of life. It is this awareness that it is a privilege to be here, it is a privilege to be together. I think it’s a lot of joy.
What marks did the pandemic not leave Rock in Rio Lisboa?
As far as the festival experience is concerned, I don’t think there is. I think the Festival experience will be exactly as it was, with the difference that people are more comfortable, and that they can be more fragile, and that they can be more fragile, and that wearing a mask is absolutely normal. Nowadays you already learn the benefit of the mask and that’s not strange.
I think the experience itself will be like it always was, with lots of joy, lots of fun and singing along. The hallmarks of the pandemic are more in the industry, in how we got here, than in the how to do it and the festival experience.
What changes?
we had to change the A a lot. Anticipate our decisions a lot, anticipate contracts with suppliers. The chain is still, and was, very destabilized in terms of manpower, raw materials, and logistics. We had situations where the sound equipment ended up in another country, by mistake, and got lost. So, the pandemic world is experiencing a very big postgraduate challenge, as if that weren’t enough, the war in Ukraine came here to tie things up even further. All of this has an impact on all of us, on anything we do, whether in the events industry, in music, or in our day-to-day lives, as citizens.
Did all the postponement of this edition of Rock in Rio Lisboa have its own event machine?
Oh, sure! There is a big profit accumulated so far. It’s a solid group that manages to hold this impact, so we can be talking here today and celebrating that opening doors.
We are in a context of war in the middle of Europe. Rock in Rio is a festival with the slogan “For a Better World, in environmental terms, but not only. How will it mark this idea of fighting for a better world?
I think you’ll feel like never before. We have been actively working on the theme of a better world for 22 years. The good thing is that there has never been such a huge listening space. I remember in 2018, in the last edition of Rock in Rio here in Lisbon, these questions were not asked. Questions about sustainability in the interviews never came up. We were just trying to talk about it. And that is a sign that there is a listening space. There is interest.
The theme designed, not only for citizens, but for companies, governments, and that’s very good. Without this moment, and this listening space, we would not be able to make the biggest changes that society needs.
How will this translate into this year’s Rock in Rio Lisboa?
You will feel on the stages that you will have relevant conversations. It will be noticed that the theme of environmental care, waste, everything and one more thing is increasingly visible.
Regarding peace, we will have a symbolic moment, on the first day, with Simone de Oliveira. Let’s call on the public to have a minute of silence for peace, to send good energy to the world, to us the strength of music and, above all, to show reinforcement, that, in a better future, peace depends on ourselves. It doesn’t depend on anyone outside of us, and changes in attitude, in choices, have to start in each of us.