Blame it on Rio: Rock in Rio returns home
Updates from across VegasVille, where Rock in Rio has announced its lineup for this year (but not on the Strip) and the Crown was going down at Mama Maria’s 100th birthday party.
Onward: ROCK IN RIO, IN RIO
Rock in Rio USA was supposed to return to the Las Vegas Festival Grounds in, oh, about eight weeks. But the festival has shuffled its schedule, and in September is returning to more fertile ticket-selling territory: Barra Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro. That’s where the festival was launched back in 1985, when an estimated 1.6 million fans attended the 10day festival.
Rock in Rio officials have not formally announced that the event will not return in May. The 2015 event was a staging and artistic success, but fell far below pre-event attendance prognostications and reportedly lost between $24 million and$28 million in its first year in the U.S.
Set to take place Sept. 15-17 and Sept. 21-24, Rock in Rio boasts a lineup that would be wonderful on the Strip, including Justin Timberlake, Guns N’ Roses, The Who, Lady Gaga, Red Hot Chili about 90 years, to Maria’s days growing up in Niagara Falls, Ontario .
“We were going to school and it was a half-hour walk and in the wintertime it was so cold, you know?” she says. “So, all the Italians would take about a half cup of coffee and add a tablespoon of whiskey. It was just the right thing to do. And you’d drink that and you’d go to school. And nobody ever got sick! We never caught cold!”
Mama Maria was joined by her daughter and Bootlegger founder Lorraine Hunt-Bono; her son-in-law, Dennis Bono; grandson Ron Mancuso; and sister Angie Ruvo (Larry’s mother) among many family members and friends in the Copa showroom. A great moment was an impromptu medley of standards by Vegas showmen Frankie Scinta, Nelson Sardelli, Jerry Tiffe, Bob Anderson and Bono.
“This is how we used to do it in Las Vegas,” Bono called out, “and Mama Maria lived it.” John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. He also hosts “Kats! On The Radio” Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on KUNV 91.5-FM and appears Wednesdays at 11 a.m. with Dayna Roselli on KTNV Channel 13. Contact him at jkatsilometes@ reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.