THE FESTIVAL THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
As the sun dawned on Rio de Janeiro on April 1 1964, a bloody new chapter of history had begun in Brazil. Overnight, plots had unfolded that saw a US-supported military coup d’état overthrow the administration of President João Goulart, and the ensuing years promised to be a dystopian nightmare with riots, state-sanctioned torture, censorship and suppression of free speech rife. While 1960s youths had found solace in using the popular genre of samba to create protest songs to rail against the establishment, by the late 70s it had been co-opted by the authorities and robbed of its potency. With the dictatorship’s power waning and the youth disillusioned as the 80s dawned, something new was needed…
“It all started when Queen played Sao Paulo in ’81,” explains Nando Machado, manager of Brazilian metal legends Viper. “They played Estádio do Morumbi to over 100,000 people, followed by both Kiss and Van Halen tours in 1983 that were broadcast on TV. It grew with the feelings of the youth who didn’t want to grow up with the military dictatorship; we
