Ice bathtub for Justin Bieber and more: get to know the backstage of Rock in Rio

“Oh, the refrigerators have arrived, come on.”

If officially Rock in Rio only starts this Friday (2), for Ingrid Berger, backstage coordinator and responsible for the dressing rooms on the main stage, the festival is already in full swing this Tuesday (30).

“Today is my crucial day because tomorrow I have to be 100% ready. Everyone’s crazy here,” she told CNN in an interview made on the afternoon of this Monday (29).

With one eye focused on the City of Rock and the other on the computer screen, Ingrid is the producer responsible for “everything behind the stage”.

“From the implementation of the dressing rooms, the catering area to the requests of each of the artists. I participate because I have to do all the logistics of where he arrives, where he stays, how he goes to the stage”, he explains.

The festival, which is scheduled to take place at the Rio de Janeiro capital’s Olympic Park between the 2nd and 11th of September, will be the twentieth Rock in Rio for Ingrid.

Even at this moment, it is already being done. “Officially, work on the Mundo Stage begins this Tuesday. There are already several rehearsals, there is the Orchestra [Sinfônica Brasileira, que tocará com a banda Sepultura]then the Iron Maiden people start to do soundcheck”, said the producer.

By the end of the festival, Ingrid will have the mission to accommodate 28 of the main artists of this edition’s line-up, which will include from rapper Post Malone and Justin Bieber to the bands Coldplay and Guns N’ Roses.

Artist requests and hundreds of towels

These very famous international artists usually make their tours accompanied by a large group of people – the so-called “entourage” –, which includes from the artist’s technical team to the guests. Ingrid explains that it is in the entourage that difficulties tend to live and where requests, which seem absurd, happen.

For example, she was responsible for the backstage of Madonna’s tour in Brazil in which the singer demanded 400 towels. “The entourage at that time came 200 gringos. Then you have a towel for each, you have face towels. When I do a Rolling Stones, a Paul McCartney of life, which has 200 people involved, it’s 300-odd towels,” she comments.

Thinking back to Rock in Rio’s past experiences, she recalls Rihanna and Beyoncé as artists whose backstage production is labor intensive.

Artists’ requests for products that are difficult to find in Brazil are also another difficulty at work.

“Everyone has [na lista de pedidos] that famous water [da marca] Fiji. It doesn’t exist in Brazil. Then I offer a similar option or say “guys, if it’s really necessary, you can bring it”. I remember Whitney Houston once, many years ago, her assistant was carrying this water back and forth in her hand, but because she brought it from outside,” she recalls.

Tequilas imported from Post Malone and “fish-shaped” gummy bears

An example of hard-to-find requests for this edition is rapper Post Malone, who returns to Brazil after having already headlined the 2019 Lollapalooza festival.

Malone will end his presentations at the Palco Mundo this Saturday (3), but Ingrid explained that her team is already in Brazil this Tuesday (30).

“He likes tequila and orders several, for example, which are very difficult to find here. Or a 1942 Herradura, which I’ve looked for everywhere,” he said.

The rapper was one of the main attractions at Rock in Rio in Lisbon at the beginning of the year, and the producer explains that, in Portugal, she found these products. It was agreed that the artist’s team would bring the drinks to Brazil.

Among Post Malone’s orders are also jelly beans “in the shape of a fish”, the “Jelly Belly Fish”.

“Often they do that. [pedidos engraçados como o da bala] to see if you’ve read the rider. A lot of people don’t pay that detailed attention,” Ingrid said.

Post Malone even asked for a table for the alcoholic beer pong game, while pop singer Dua Lipa, who will close the last day of the festival, asked for a ping pong table.

On the other hand, the complete absence of alcohol is a requirement in the dressing room of singer Demi Lovato, who recently left a rehab clinic.

Demi is one of the “super cool” performers on the requests, Ingrid said.

Guns N ‘Roses returns to RiR: “Slash alone is already demanding enough”

This edition of Rock in Rio will also serve as a reunion of the backstage production with artists who have already been through the festival – some easy to deal with, others that are a reason for attention.

“Iron Maiden are super cool. I already know the whole team and it’s much easier to work that way. So we are calm”, said the person in charge of the dressing room.

Guns N’ Roses, on the other hand, is usually more work. From the requests made by the band, which arrives for its fifth Rock in Rio, Ingrid reveals only “a lot of ready-to-eat food”.

The biggest difficulty is dealing with the giant team, which will occupy all seven fixed dressing rooms on the Mundo Stage and another five, which Ingrid usually “leaves stand-by” for bands like this.

“Each one [da banda] come with your assistant. I have to talk to four people at the same time and each one asks for something different. So one wants dinner, another wants food in the car when he leaves, another wants food when he arrives”, he explains.

“Slash alone is a guy who demands a lot. So, well, it’s a very peculiar day for us here,” he added.

Ice bath for Justin Bieber

Resuming the world tour after an unexpected break due to facial paralysis, Justin Bieber used to be one of those “it takes work”.

Ingrid worked with him in 2011, shortly after Rock in Rio ended that year. “I finished Rock in Rio here on Sunday, and on Monday I joined Engenhão with his tour. And it was surreal, man,” she recounted.

“He was very young, so his father, mother, uncles came, there were a lot of people demanding a lot of things. I went crazy on this tour,” he added.

But for this edition, she has already received optimistic signs that maybe things will be quieter.

“This time, I don’t know if he’s more mature and stuff, but he’s not in such demand. He hasn’t asked for anything out of this world,” he said.

The singer is accompanied by more than 70 people and, like Guns N’ Roses and Coldplay, will occupy 12 backstage dressing rooms.

Among the singer’s attention-grabbing demands is an ice bath.

“Today it is common. [Quando veio o] Thirty Seconds to Mars, Jared Leto also asked for it here. I took a 500 liter water tank and filled it with water and ice. And the guy stays there, about two minutes inside. This time Justin wants a bathtub like this”, revealed the producer.

Chef de cuisine for Green Day and Coldplay

“Two sinks. A crockery and a hand basin. It’s great”, says Ingrid in another pause in the interview.

She explains that she is putting together a full kitchen behind the scenes. Some bands choose to bring their own chef.

“I have three or four chefs this year. Green Day will bring it, Coldplay will bring it,” she says.

Green Day will even make its festival debut. Asked if they’re easy to deal with, Ingrid responds with a laugh: “More or less. Not a Jack Johnson is it?”

Food for artists is a puzzle for production. “This year there are a lot of vegans, a lot of people with food intolerances.”

“In Demi Lovato’s entourage, for example, there’s one celiac, three vegetarians, three pescetarians,” he says. “There’s a kiwi-intolerant guy, I’ve never seen that,” she adds.

Among the dietary requirements, there was one that shocked the producer from Rio: “There is one who doesn’t eat onions and garlic.”

“This one doesn’t eat, right? I already said I’m going to make pasta in water and tomato sauce with nothing [risos]”, says the producer.