Record-breaking rock concerts
2006-02-13 09:20
Brazil - The Rolling Stones will play a free concert on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach next Saturday.
More than a million people are expected to attend, which would
make it one the largest crowds ever for a rock show.
Here are some other notable big shows in a single venue.
- The Guinness Book of Records says the largest free rock
concert attendance was for Rod Stewart, also on Copacabana
Beach, on New Year's Eve 1994. It reportedly attracted an
audience of 3.5 million people.
- The largest paying audience for a solo performer was the
estimated 180 000 to 184 000 people who saw Paul McCartney in
Rio's Maracana Stadium on April 21 1990, also according to
Guinness.
- About 750 000 people saw country star Garth Brooks in New
York's Central Park in August 1997.
- The United States festival organised by Apple Computer co-founder
Steve Wozniak drew 670 000 people to Devore, California, in May
1983 to see U2, David Bowie, Willie Nelson and others.
- The legendary Woodstock Festival in upstate New York in
1969 gathered 400 000 people to see The Who, Crosby, Stills,
Nash and Young, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead and a host of
others.
- A free Rolling Stones concert in London's Hyde Park in
July 1969, days after the death of guitarist Brian Jones, drew
200 000. Mick Jagger read a Shelley poem and released hundreds
of butterflies in tribute to Jones.