WHAT a gas. The Rolling Stones brought the carnival spirit early to Brazil last night when they played a free concert to more than a million people on Rio de Janeiro’s fabled Copacabana beach, writes Maurice Chittenden.
They opened one of the world’s biggest beach parties with Jumping Jack Flash, their 1968 hit with lyrics about being born in a crossfire hurricane.
Fire department officials estimated the crowd was more than 1m when the show started but that more people were still coming. Officials estimated that as many as 2m would see the concert.
Some fans had camped out for days to get a prime spot on the 2.5 mile-long beach.
“It’s going to be an amazing show,” said 19-year-old Barbara de Carvalho, a student from Sao Paulo who had camped on the beach since Thursday.
A specially erected footbridge built at a cost of £250,000 took the Stones from their hotel over the beachfront Avenida Atlantica and directly to the stage.
The Stones spent £1m on setting up the gig; the city paid another £500,000, aware of its boost to tourism. A new stage was created especially for the show, decorated with a 45ft high design of palm leaves to add to the carnival theme.
Patrick Woodroffe, the Stones’ lighting designer, said: “I am sure anybody would be nervous going out in front of 1.5m people but there is nobody that does it better than the Stones.”