Rolling Stones rock a million fans in Rio

More than one million people attended a free show by The Rolling Stones on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach, in one of the biggest-ever rock concerts.

The Stones kicked off the Saturday night gig with their 1968 classic, Jumping Jack Flash. The sexagenarian rockers blasted out 20 songs in total as eight video screens and more than a dozen sound towers broadcast the concert to fans far from the stage.

Fire department officials estimated one million people had arrived by the time the music began.

"I wanted to see a legend, a myth," said Lazaro Rosas, 26, who had staked his tent out on the sand on Wednesday — one of many who had begun to camp out on the four-kilometre beach earlier in the week. The artist travelled from his town in southern Brazil to see the event.

The concert also attracted fans from around the world. Fleets of buses bringing people from elsewhere in Brazil and Latin America clogged city streets.

Tom Nolan, a 62-year-old businessman from New York state had already seen the band in Albany last September but said he didn't want to miss the Rio show.

"They are an inspiration to our generation. They have given the world so much and they are still cranking it out."

The city deployed 10,000 police officers to keep watch at the concert, on streets and in volatile neighbourhoods. They were joined by at least 600 firefighters, lifeguards and civil defence workers, while port authority crews patrolled the shoreline.

The veteran British rockers and a number of their guests stayed at the Copacabana Palace, just opposite from the stage.

About 4,000 friends of the band, including sponsors and promoters, watched the show from a special enclosure around the stage.

The concert was part of the band's "Bigger Bang" tour, which opened in the United States in August 2005.

The concert organizers had touted it as the world's largest rock concert. But an estimated 3.5 million people turned out to hear Rod Stewart play on Copacabana Beach on New Year's Eve in 1994.

posted by nscafuro @ 7:21 AM