Rock in Rio USA

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Rock in Rio USA is a music festival held in Las Vegas, Nevada. A spin-off of Rio de Janeiro's Rock in Rio festival, it was first held on May 9 and 10, 2015 at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds—a purpose-built venue on the Las Vegas Strip developed in cooperation with the festival's organizers. It shares a similar structure and format to its Brazilian counterpart, hosting at least 120 acts for its inaugural edition.

Per the terms of the organizers' contract with the venue, the festival will be held biennially from 2015 through at least 2019. The first edition was held across two weekends of two days each, and will expand into a three-day, two-weekend format during the subsequent editions.

Development

In November 2013, SFX Entertainment, an electronic dance music events company founded by Robert F.X. Sillerman, reached a deal with Roberto Medina, organizer of the Rock in Rio festival series, to acquire a 50% stake in a new entity that will own the rock music festival alongside Eike Batista's IMX, with SFX replacing IMX as the managing partner of the festival. Sillerman also disclosed that plans were being made to bring the festival to the United States for the first time ever. Medina revealed further information about these plans in an interview with Billboard shortly after the deal was reached. He stated that the inaugural festival was to be held in Las Vegas in May 2015, at a site in proximity to the Las Vegas Strip. Medina touted that in comparison to other, U.S.-based festivals, Rock in Rio USA was going to be "bigger in terms of public, in terms of sponsorship, in terms of social media. Not a little bit bigger, a lot bigger."[1][2]

On March 20, 2014, Rock in Rio USA was officially announced, to be held in May 2015. For its inaugural year, it will consist of four days of performances held across two weekends; during its second year, 2017, the festival will expand to six days.[3][4] In April 2014, further details were announced; on April 22, 2014, it was announced that Rock in Rio would partner with MGM Resorts International, Cirque du Soleil, and Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Companies to construct a 33-acre open-air multi-purpose venue on the Strip near Circus Circus, which will host the festival. While the festival itself will not have any direct ownership stake in the venue, it contributed resources to its development, and secured a long-term deal to hold Rock in Rio USA at the venue biennially from 2015 to 2019. Additionally, Yucaipa Companies and Cirque each acquired a 20% equity stake in a subsidiary that will own Rock in Rio USA; Rock in Rio CEO Louis Justo explained that the involvement of Cirque de Soleil was oriented more towards their knowledge of the Las Vegas market and its consumers, rather than their creative works. At least $30 million will be spent on promoting the festival's inaugural edition across multiple platforms, including marketing partnerships with Clear Channel Communications and National CineMedia.[5][3]

Venue

File:2013-0222-CircusCircus.jpg
Circus Circus Las Vegas, a casino near the site of the Las Vegas Festival Grounds

Rock in Rio USA is held at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds, a 33-acre (13 ha), open-air venue with a capacity of 80,000, which will be located on Sahara Avenue near the MGM-owned Circus Circus Las Vegas hotel and casino. It is owned by the MGM/Yucaipa/Cirque consortium, who collectively spent $20 million on its development. Rock in Rio organizers collaborated with MGM and Yucaipa on the design of the venue to ensure a "very premium festival experience"; during the festival, it will have an amusement park-inspired layout with five stages (including dedicated stages for indie and electronic music acts), rides (such as a roulette-themed ferris wheel and a zipline), shopping, and themed food courts.

Lineup

2015

For its inaugural edition, the festival featured a lineup of at least 120 acts. The two weekends of the festival were oriented towards different genres. The first weekend's lineup was rock-oriented, with the second being pop-oriented. Owing to its increasing prominence in the festival (especially under SFX ownership), electronic music acts were featured on a dedicated stage; additionally, plans were disclosed for a nightly feature where an EDM act will "fly" from the main stage to the EDM stage, and transform the venue into a "360-degree nightclub" to close each night.[5][3][1]

The first artists for the 2015 lineup were revealed on September 26, 2014, at an event in New York City, including the Deftones, Jessie J, John Legend, Linkin Park, No Doubt, Metallica, and Taylor Swift.[6] Linkin Park was the last band to perform at the first edition of the festival.

The festival's attendance was lower than expected, with 130,000 tickets sold.[7]

See also

References

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External links

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