Mayor of RJ says “no” to show and producer postpones ticket sales

The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, stated that he will not give authorization for singer Bruno Mars’ shows to take place in the city as announced by the production company Live Nation.

The presentations were scheduled for October 4th and 5th, dates coinciding with the municipal elections. The clash between the events would require the mobilization of civil servants and would make it impossible to create a scheme that would guarantee everyone’s safety.

As we reported here, in addition to the performance on the 4th, which was already sold out, Mars also agreed to do an extra date in the city the very next day. In total, there will be 8 shows in Brazil.

“We informed this to the production of the artist’s show on the same day as the October 4th date was announced. Even so, they sold tickets. The city of Rio de Janeiro did not and will not give authorization for the aforementioned show during election week. If the warnings given were not enough, let this publication serve to avoid imagining that an irreversible situation will be created. Outside of this period, it will be an honor to welcome the artist Bruno Mars to the city of Rio”, wrote Paes on his Facebook profile.

Hours later, he published a video. “Rio de Janeiro has all the pleasure, potential and vocation to host major events. It’s good for the city, for the economy, for the population, for workers and for businesspeople. I am the first in terms of encouraging, providing support,” he said. “But now, you will forgive me for saying: this is not Mother Joana’s house, this is no man’s land. Rio has order, it has a government, a ruler and most importantly, responsibility towards the population”.

Next, Paes explained the operation in more detail. He informed that, since the election takes place on Sunday (5), the transport of ballot boxes begins days before and, therefore, the duty schedule of the municipal guard and agents would be changed.

“The priority is to ensure that the population has complete security to exercise their democratic right to vote, but apparently the producers thought they were more important than the people of Rio or did not understand, more important than the guards, police and all civil servants public authorities that guarantee the entire electoral process, decided to go head to head with public authorities”, he explained. “They thought we were going to bow our heads and accept an arbitrary and abusive decision to go against an official determination. That won’t happen here.”

The mayor also said that it would be impossible to guarantee that tens of thousands of people could travel to the Nilton Santos Stadium, Engenhão, with adequate security and urban planning due to the electoral process, which takes place from Sunday morning, a few hours after the show.

“You don’t need to be a genius to understand this. The city hall will take all necessary measures from consumer protection bodies and judicial authorities, including electoral ones, so that fans, victims of this abusive and misleading advertising, are not harmed,” he said.

“I leave here an invitation to Bruno Mars, our Bruninho, so that, yes, he can come and do 1, 2 3 big shows here in Rio, as he has done on other occasions, but on another date, so that everything happens in perfect tranquility and in peace, as we have shown Brazil and the world that Rio is capable”, he concluded.