A 23-year-old Taylor Swift fan died on Friday night, Nov. 17, at the singer’s Eras Tour concert in Rio de Janeiro.
The cause of death for Ana Clara Benevides Machado has not yet been announced.
The office of Rio’s public prosecutor opened a criminal investigation and said Benevides body was being examined.
Before
the show, Benevides posted a video of herself on Instagram wearing a
Taylor Swift T-shirt and waiting in line to enter the stadium while
seeking shade under an umbrella. Thousands of fans like Benevides waited
hours in the sun before being allowed inside.
Benevides
told her followers while fanning her face that she’d arrived at 11
a.m., for the show which began around 7:30 p.m., and was “still in the
mess.”
Benevides’
friend, Daniele Menin, who attended the concert with her, told online
news site G1 that her friend passed out at the beginning of the concert,
as Swift performed her second song, “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 told
G1.
Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes said on X the “loss of a young woman’s life ... is unacceptable.”
In a handwritten note shared on her social media, Taylor Swift said her heart was "shattered" by the incident.
“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 young
woman.
Those
who attended the concert complained that they were not allowed to take
water into Nilton Santos Olympic Stadium despite soaring temperatures,
and federal authorities announced that free water would be made
available at all future concerts.
The show’s organizer,
Time4Fun, said on Instagram that paramedics attended to Benevides after
she reported feeling unwell. She was taken to a first-aid center and
then to a hospital, where she died an hour later, the statement from the
Brazilian live entertainment company said.
Fans who attended
the Friday show said they were not allowed to bring water bottles into
the stadium even though Rio and most of Brazil have had record-breaking
temperatures this week amid a dangerous and lasting heat wave. The
daytime high in Rio on Friday was 39.1 degrees Celsius (102.4 degrees
Fahrenheit), but it felt much hotter
Apparent temperature — a
combination of temperature and humidity — hit 59 C (138 F) Friday
morning in Rio, the highest index ever recorded there.
Elizabeth Morin, 26, who recently moved to Rio from Los Angeles, described “sauna-like” conditions inside the stadium.
“It
was extremely hot. My hair got so wet from sweat as soon as I came in,”
she said. “There was a point at which I had to check my breathing to
make sure I wasn’t going to pass out.”
Morin said she drank plenty of water but saw “a good amount of people looking distressed” and others “yelling for water.”
She
said she was able to get water from the sidelines of the area she was
standing in, but that water was a lot harder to access from other parts
of the stadium, “especially if you were concerned about losing your
specific position.”
During the show, Swift paused her
performance and asked from the stage for water to be brought to a group
of people who had successfully caught the singer’s attention, according
to Morin.
“They were holding up their phones saying ‘We need water,’” she recalled.
Justice
Minister Flávio Dino said on X that the ministry would implement
“emergency rules” in response to the situation. He later announced that
“water bottles for personal use, in suitable material, will be allowed”
at concerts and other events and that show producers must provide free
and easily accessible drinking water.
Swift has two more shows
scheduled in Rio, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. State prosecutors
said in a statement they would “monitor measures that seek to avoid new
problems and guarantee the protection of the health of the public.”
While
authorities are investigating the circumstances of the death, Paes
wrote, the municipality will demand Saturday that the show’s production
company provide new water distribution points, more brigades and
ambulances, and advance entrance to the show by one hour.
“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.”
