rock in rio is one of the brazil's largest musical events and is held over three cities, rio de janeiro (five times) being the principle location, spain's madrid (three times) and lisbon (five times) in portugal the others.

rio de janeiro has hosted the first event in 1985 before staging the 1991, 2001, 2011, and 2013 editions.

rock in rio is continually one of the largest music gatherings in the world with 1.5 million people attending the first edition, 700,00 in both the second and fourth, 1.2 million in the third, and around 350,00 in each of the lisbon editions.