Rock stars, the rumour goes, are notorious hotel room crashers and guitar smashers.
But rock stars are also great fundraisers, frequently arranging gigantic concerts in aid of social causes. One of the first to take this initiative was Bob Geldof of the Irish group Boomtown Rats, who arranged the Live Aid concert in July 1985, which raised more than 100 million US dollars to help famine-ravaged Ethiopia.
Live Aid was held at two stages – Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. While TV was broadcasting from one stage, the other was setting up for new performances. Thus, Bryan Adams in Philadelphia could be immediately followed by U2 in London, which was then followed by the Beach Boys on the US stage.
Along these same lines, in January 2001 “Rock in Rio for a Better World” was held in Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro. Five percent of the festival’s net turnover was donated to the Unesco and national and international charity organisations. Almost 100 artists and rock groups performed at the rock festival, helping to raise money for education and health care.
The week-long festival, which attracted 1.5 million fans, was the biggest rock show
to date, and featured such performers as Guns N’ Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., ‘NSync and Oasis. The festivities started with three minutes of silence, during which everybody had a chance to contemplate and think about what he as an individual could do to better the world.
The stars performed on the world’s largest mobile stage, which rotates on SKF Explorer bearings. The stage mounting weighs some 200 tonnes and is 40 metres high. It works like a carousel and is divided into three pieces, or stages, so that when one group performs on the stage facing the audience, the other two stages can be prepared for the next artists. The intervals between the performances were reduced to a minimum, without video intermissions. There was just rock and ROLL.