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ARGANDA DEL REY, Spain – One of the world’s biggest festivals, Rock in Rio, opens in recession-hit Spain this week vowing to defy the misery of austerity with rock and food.
“We spent two days collecting food and in return we gave people tickets to Rock in Rio,” said Pablo Rodriguez, mayor of Arganda del Rey, the town southeast of Madrid where the festival venue, the man-made “City of Rock,” rises amid parched yellow fields.
The food donations supplied branches of the charities Caritas and the Red Cross for their local programmes to help the needy.
“We gathered 15 tonnes of non-perishable food like sugar and oil — more food than we had asked for,” and gave out 3,000 tickets to the festival in return, Rodriguez added.
More than 8,000 people will work at the festival, spread over 4 days between June 30 and July 7, organisers say.
The mayor said it has packed out Arganda’s hotels and made business for local suppliers who provided materials to build the City of Rock, a 200,000-square metre expanse with two stages, shop stands and a Ferris wheel.
Stars such as dance-pop diva Rihanna and Californian punk-funk supergroup the Red Hot Chili Peppers are due to play there next week. – Roland Lloyd Parry, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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