ROCK IN RIO’s 2021 Edition Officially Canceled; Dates For 2022 Festival Announced

BLABBERMOUTH.NET

Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Rock In Rio has been forced to cancel the 2021 editions of its festivals in both Lisbon, Portugal in June and Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in late September. Both have been rescheduled for 2022, with the dates for Brazil being September 2-4 and September 8-11, 2022, and for Portugal June 18, 19, 25 and 26, 2022. The 2021 edition of Rock In Rio in Rio De Janeiro was scheduled to include appearances by IRON MAIDEN, DREAM THEATER, MEGADETH and SEPULTURA. SEPULTURA's performance was slated to include an appearance by the Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira, which is one of Brazil's foremost orchestras. This marks Rock In Rio's second postponement in a row as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Brazil has the world's second-highest death toll of the pandemic, after the United States. Brazil's Health Ministry registered 75,102 additional cases of coronavirus on Thursday, the most in a single day since July and the second-highest on record. It also recorded 1699 deaths on the day. Less than 3.5 percent of the Brazilian population has received the COVID-19 vaccine so far. In 2018, Live Nation Entertainment, the world's leading live entertainment company, acquired a stake in Rock In Rio, which in 2017 was the second highest-grossing festival in all of the world, as well as the largest music festival in South America, attended by more than 700,000 fans from 62 different countries. Rock In Rio began in 1985, and has hosted 20 editions with nearly 2,000 artists and 10 million attendees. The festival has also been live broadcasted and streamed to more than one billion viewers worldwide.