Rock in Rio

Before we’d left Australia, I’d promised my best friend I’d get us tickets to the Rock in Rio festival. A concert that amasses a crowd of 1.5 million people over a two-week period, with some of the world’s biggest names in music set to perform.

With over 1.5 million tickets available, I missed out! As we jetted off bound for Brazil, I said “Don’t worry I’m getting us into that concert”.

As luck would have it, whilst on the island of Ilha Grande we decided to do a 3.5 hour walk to the picturesque beach Lopes Mendes. With very few people on the walk to Lopes Mendes, we struck up a conversation with a local Brazilian we met on the way. We ended up hijacking his day and spent the day on the beach with him. He invited us to a bar that night as he wanted to introduce us to some people he knew. We all had a great night and a few days later we happened to be on a bus travelling to Rio with the couple we’d been introduced to at the bar a few nights prior. We all got talking again, and we found out that they were heading to Rock In Rio!! It just so happens that one of them knew the manager for one of the lead talents. They had tickets waiting for them in Rio, but they didn’t have any accommodation. I struck a deal with them and said, “If you get us into that concert tonight you can come to our hotel, get ready for the concert and we can all go together”. So that’s exactly what we did. The four of us headed to Rock in Rio to watch Alicia Keys and Justin Timberlake.

It was without a doubt the best concert we’d ever been to, over 80,000 people in attendance that night, and we managed to position ourselves 20metres from the stage. We were grateful for our chance encounter with the Brazilian locals, and we all remain friends to this day – Billi, Sydney, NSW, Australia