BBC Verify debunks Rio concert numbers

[candydarling 1,776]

so they didnt give their own estimated number of people?

[bpmMonkey 5,685]

8 hours ago, robboadam said:

Watch: Was Lady Gaga's Rio concert really attended by 2.1m people? https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm20rg0vvp9o

After a reader wondered if 2.1 million people could really have seen Lady Gaga at Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach in May, BBC Verify looked into it.

The Lady Gaga concert was paid for by the seaside city in an attempt to revitalise its economy.

Fans reportedly travelled from all across the country to see the grandiose performance, which was expected to bring in more than $100m (£75m) to the local economy.

Rio officials heralded the 2.1 million attendance as a triumph.

However, careful analysis by the BBC Verify team and a crowd density expert reveal it is highly improbable the claims are accurate.

Instead, it would require the entire length of the beach, rather than a section, to comfortably fit more than two million people.

Despite the BBC's findings, city officials have maintained their claims. They have not  however explained how their data was measured.

 

 

 

So many words, so little information lol. 

[littlepotter 74,941]

Lowkey i think they're right. Look at the crowd at a stadium concert with 100k people. You're telling me that beach had the capacity of TWENTY FIVE huge stadiums?

[dit 46,417]

i mean...it was pretty obvious yall 

but like...why do they have to only do this to Gaga? ALL of these big festival events inflate their numbers. ALL of them.

[Yaaaas Gaga 918]

People weren’t only on the beach though, I’ve seen plenty videos of people standing all along the streets off to the side. BBC are probably only looking at the official standing area and not the surrounding. If they debunking Gaga’s attendance they need to do the same to Madonna, Rod Stewart and all the others that have pulled big numbers at Cococabana.

[bionic 49,779]

9 minutes ago, Yaaaas Gaga said:

 If they debunking Gaga’s attendance they need to do the same to Madonna, Rod Stewart and all the others that have pulled big numbers at Cococabana.

We need the United Nations to investigate this injustice

[Head Empty 25,064]

I attended as well. I was standing all the way back in The Netherlands and there were definitely 2.5m people in between me and Gaga 

[lastpopicon 29,485]

 

the biggest standalone concert EVER  and "careful analysis" is what exactly? This is just another hit piece from people who don't like gaga.  Did they ever do the careful analysis for Madonna? 

 

Edited Monday at 08:49 AM by lastpopicon

[Chromanne 1,388]

"Crowd Density Expert" 

Some people's profession these days 

[iAstroLeo 14,424]

Did Angela Chang leave buzzfeed to go work for BBC now?

[StarstruckIllusion 52,473]

…and what is their number? Quickly. 

A day late and a dollar short. 

[MOT 3,020]

I wasn't at the concert, but I watched the footage and did some freeze-framing and I counted 3.4m (at a bare minimum). We're talking a 55" screen here by the way, and I reckon I'm as dense as any expert.

[banjosnap 352]

This is easily estimated.

Each section would contain an entry limit. There were several sections. There would also be tourism data used to estimate the amount of people also.

When you have data like this at your disposal, as the city does, then it's not hard at all to determine a rough attendance.

Bbc are just salty she won't to big weekend again.

[Nessun Dorma 7,226]

Rio de Janeiro City Hall has been hosting large-scale public events for at least 30 years. I imagine they have the necessary expertise to count the attendance for security reasons. Not to mention there are softwares that help with crowd counting, using images from security cameras or sensors to estimate the number of people in a given location. It’s funny that BBC “debunked” Rio’s numbers by  estimating 1,320,000 people, but not actually confirming what the real number would be. Shouldn't the “crowd density expert” give the exact number then? 

Not to mention Gaga holds the world record for the largest attendance at a free concert by a female artist and the Guinness World Records has a rigorous evaluation process to ensure the legitimacy of each record before confirming it.

[SLAYing 3,113]

The only BBC I care about isn't gonna worry about GAGA's attendance numbers ! 🫠 Iykyk

Edited Monday at 11:57 AM by SLAYing