A 23-year-old Taylor Swift fan died on the singer’s Eras Tour live performance in Rio de Janeiro Friday night time, in accordance with a press release from the present’s organizers in Brazil. Each Swifties and politicians reacted to the information with outrage.
Whereas a explanation for loss of life for Ana Clara Benevides Machado has not been introduced, followers complained they weren’t allowed to take water into Nilton Santos Olympic Stadium regardless of hovering temperatures.
A bunch launched a web-based petition Saturday morning calling for a “Benevides Law” to “make water in events mandatory.”
The petition garnered greater than 150,000 signatures in just some hours. Federal authorities introduced that free water could be made accessible in any respect future live shows.
In a handwritten observe shared on her social media, Swift stated she had a “shattered heart.”
“There’s very little information I have other than the fact that she was so incredibly beautiful and far too young,” the singer wrote of the younger girl.
The present’s organizer, Time4Fun, stated on Instagram that paramedics attended to Benevides after she reported feeling unwell. She was taken to a first-aid heart after which to a hospital, the place she died an hour later, the assertion from the Brazilian dwell leisure firm stated.
Live performance-goers stated they weren’t allowed to convey water bottles into the stadium despite the fact that Rio and most of Brazil have had record-breaking temperatures this week amid a harmful and lasting warmth wave. The daytime excessive in Rio on Friday was 39.1 levels Celsius (102.4 levels Fahrenheit), nevertheless it felt a lot hotter.
Elizabeth Morin, 26, who just lately moved to Rio from Los Angeles, described “sauna-like” situations contained in the stadium.
“It was extremely hot. My hair got so wet from sweat as soon as I came in,” she stated. “There was a point at which I had to check my breathing to make sure I wasn’t going to pass out.”
Morin stated she drank loads of water however noticed “a good amount of people looking distressed” and others “yelling for water.” She stated she was in a position to get water from the sidelines of the realm she was standing in, however that water was quite a bit more durable to entry from different components of the stadium, “especially if you were concerned about losing your specific position.”
Through the present, Swift paused her efficiency and requested from the stage for water to be dropped at a bunch of people that had efficiently caught the singer’s consideration, in accordance with Morin.
“They were holding up their phones saying `We need water,”’ she recalled.
Justice Minister Flavio Dino stated on X that the ministry would implement “emergency rules” in response to the state of affairs. He later introduced that “water bottles for personal use, in suitable material, will be allowed” at live shows and different occasions and that present producers should present free and simply accessible consuming water.
Earlier than the present, Benevides posted a video of herself on Instgram carrying a Taylor Swift T-shirt and ready in line to enter the stadium whereas looking for shade underneath an umbrella. Like her, 1000’s of followers waited hours within the solar earlier than being allowed inside.
She advised her followers whereas fanning her face that she’d arrived at 11 a.m. — the present started round 7:30 p.m. — and was “still in the mess.”
Benevides’ pal, Daniele Menin, who attended the live performance along with her, advised on-line information web site G1 that her pal handed out originally of the live performance, as Swift carried out her second tune, “Cruel Summer.”
“We always said that when (Taylor Swift) came to Brazil we would find a way to go. The ticket was very expensive, but we still found a way”, Menin advised G1.
Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes stated on X the “loss of a young woman’s life … is unacceptable.”
Whereas authorities are investigating the circumstances of the loss of life, Paes wrote, the municipality will demand Saturday that the present’s manufacturing firm present new water distribution factors, extra brigades and ambulances, and advance entrance to the present by one hour.
Swift has two extra exhibits scheduled in Rio, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.
“I’m not going to be able to speak about this from stage because I feel overwhelmed by grief when I even try to talk about it,” she wrote. “I want to say now I feel this loss deeply and my broken heart goes out to her family and friends.”
© 2023 The Canadian Press
