They may be free, but concerts like Madonna’s recently, have the value of thank you gestures or awareness gigs.
Recently, music icon Madonna performed her biggest ‘free’ gig in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the majestic Copacabana beach. The concert was the culmination of her universally praised ‘The Celebration Tour’. The Tour’s $225-million finish marks her highest-grossing tour as it surpassed her theatre experiment on the Madame X Tour ($51.5 million in 2019 20) in Europe; and Rebel Heart Tour $169.8 million in 2015-16 in North America.
The Rio concert was an unforgettable concert, free of charge, as a thank you to her fans for celebrating more than four decades of her music over the course of the epic global run of the tour. But this one was a huge crowd puller with over 1.6 million fans who turned the beach into a dance floor. “Here we are in the most beautiful place in the world,” Madonna said to the crowd as she performed live. Madonna’s concert may be a gesture of gratitude, but overall, the scale of such ‘free’ concerts can be realised in the manner they impact the economy. Rio’s airport was estimated to have 170 extra flights for fans from all over the world. All the fans decided to watch the show on giant screens with 18 sound towers spread out along the beach. People crowded the nearby apartments and hotels next to the beach, and motorboats and sailboats anchored nearby.
Rio’s state and city governments said they spent 20 million reais ($3.9 million) on this concert, while the rest was financed by private sponsors. The Rio authorities estimate the concert brought about 300 million reais to economy (nearly $57 million), considering hotel accommodation, boat rentals, transport, restaurants, and other services.
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More than 3,000 police officers were deployed around the concert area, where the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart have also drawn million-strong crowds. As hotel bookings in Copacabana climbed to an estimated 98% of capacity, Rio state’s security readied plans that included the presence of 3,200 military personnel and 1,500 civilian police officers on standby.
The phenomena of performing live and free gigs is gaining momentum. Last week, electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre and Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May performed a free concert in Bratislava over the Danube river, at the opening of science and arts festival. The concert aimed to create awareness towards addressing the planet’s current problems.
While free concerts have been a phenomena over the years, many such free gigs kick off the summer with free outdoor activities and live entertainment. Last year, the Seoul Festa, the city’s annual tourist festival, saw a free K-pop concert attended by 40,000 fans at Jamsil Olympic Stadium in Seoul. It had performances by K-pop artistes, including Atee*z, IVE, iKON, ENHYPEN and rapper Lee Young-ji. Another one, last year, was by hip-hop artist, rapper Flo Rida at the Lambeau Field in Wisconsin. As part of her Motomami World Tour, Spanish singer Rosalía performed free in Mexico last year at the capital’s Zócalo, the most important public square in the country. In fact, K-pop sensation BTS, known for their struggles before they shot to fame, have played free K-pop concerts in Hollywood, one such being in Los Angeles in 2014, for over 200 fans.
In 2021, pop star Ed Sheeran performed a free gig in Coventry in the UK for 700 fans to mark the ‘grand opening’ of HMV Empire in Hertford Street. The gig celebrated the launch of the new venue and marked the 100th birthday of the iconic music and entertainment retailer. The Rolling Stones performed at the Altamont festival in California in 1969 in a one-day rock festival that was free and intended as a thank-you gesture by the band to their fans. Rock legend Rod Stewart gave the biggest free rock concert in history in 1994, attended by 4 million fans at Copacabana Beach. It holds a Guinness World Record for one of the largest free concerts ever, a testament to the power of an artiste to connect with fans on a massive scale.
