There was an industrial accident in Río de Janeiro yesterday, Sunday, during the installation of a stage for the Sakira concert.
More specifically, for more than two weeks, workers have been setting up a large tent on the sand of the famous Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, where a huge crowd of people, made up of Brazilians and foreign tourists, is expected to gather on Saturday (02.01.2026).
The man was trapped and his legs were crushed in a “lifting system” before he was extricated, according to the fire department of the Brazilian metropolis. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital, but succumbed.
“Unfortunately, the technician died in hospital,” Bonus Track, the concert’s promoter, said in a terse statement.
“We saw people running” and “when we looked over there, the whole structure had collapsed to the ground,” António Marcus Feheira dos Santos, who works on the beach, told Agence France-Presse.
A few days ago, on April 13, police located and removed an “explosive device” from a promenade in Copacabana.
According to local media, it was a flash-bang grenade, a non-lethal deterrent weapon designed to temporarily disorientate.
Gigs like Sakira’s generally attract large crowds.
During the southern hemisphere autumn season (March-June), the municipality expects somewhere around 3.5 million tourists to visit Rio.
According to the municipal tourism agency Riotur, somewhere around 2.1 million people went to a similar free concert by Lady Gaga last year, and somewhere around 1.6 million to the one by Madonna in 2024.
