Metalheads and evangelicals mingle at Rock City.
At Rock City in Barra da Tijuca, metalheads wore t-shirts with slogans like "The hammer of Justice will crush you," while evangelicals held up a banner reading "For a better world."
Thousands of black t-shirts flooded Rock City on Sunday afternoon, the monochromatic uniform of heavy metal fans of Metallica, Slipknot, Coheed and Cambria, and Motörhead. With repeat queues and heavy police presence, the black wave patiently and peacefully stretched more than 3 km from the entrance gates, vying for space with evangelicals and their banners reading "For a Better World? Only Jesus".
Inside the City of Rock, dark attire displays a profusion of phrases like "The hammer of justice will crush you" and "Losing all hope is achieving true freedom," amidst skulls and blood, and the names of little-known bands like Septic Flesh and Killswitch Engage. Al Qaeda, the German national team, Christ the Redeemer, and Seu Madruga also decorate the black canvas of Rock in Rio.
The organization began to show signs of fatigue on the third day of the festival: some restrooms were closed when the gates opened, and there was still a lot of trash scattered across the lawn. The smell of urine was very strong in the restrooms closest to the main stage, and cleaning was still in progress while fans sought to relieve themselves, being directed to other locations.