It all started with Sinatra
The lineup for the first-ever Rock in Rio USA festival is a veritable constellation of music superstars including Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Metallica, No Doubt, Joss Stone, John Legend, the Deftones, Linkin Park and Ed Sheeran. And that’s just the start.
According to the Las Vegas Sun, those are the stars announced so far for the event set for May 2015. Rock in Rio will include a rock weekend May 8-9 and a pop weekend May 15-16. Tickets for the six-stage mega-event will go on sale in January.
Roberto Medina, who founded the festival, got his start in 1980 when he first invited crooner Frank Sinatra to Brazil for a concert. “It was the biggest concert he ever performed,” Medina said. “He became my friend, and he helped me a lot in realizing my dream of Rock in Rio.”
The first 10-day Rock in Rio extravaganza in 1985?that one actually in Rio de Janeiro? drew stars like Queen, Rod Stewart, AC/DC and James Taylor. “When I dreamt of this, I did not dream of 100 people, or 100,000 people, but one million people,” Medina says. “We put a million and a half people in the first one.”
The upcoming concert series?which currently is planned to come to town every other year?will play out over six stages on 50 acres at the MGM Resorts Festival Grounds, now under construction. It is expected to attract 300,000 fans.
“That is just where we are starting,” Medina told the Sun. “I want to make the second day bigger than the first and each day bigger up to the sixth day. It will grow and grow.”
Chris Baldizan, entertainment executive with MGM Resorts, said the Festival Grounds will host other music festivals as well as “nontraditional events, sporting events, food festivals, boxing, rodeo, UFC, rugby (and) soccer.”
