Rock in Rio Lisboa says goodbye to its 11th edition celebrating the ‘trap’ of Central Cee and 21 Savage

The Rock in Rio Lisboa festival closed its 11th edition this Sunday, June 28, with the celebration of ‘trap’ by artists such as Central Cee or 21 Savage and the Spanish representation of Lola Índigo. The event was attended by approximately 50,000 people, according to organization data.

The Portuguese festival has returned to Parque Tejo Lisboa for the second time – the event returned to the venue in 2024 – an environment in which the music from the stages mixes with the views of the Tagus River and the Vasco de Gama Bridge.

Central Cee, the greatest exponent of the London drill scene – a musical subgenre of trap that was born in Chicago in the 2010s – has driven the public crazy in what has been his only festival performance outside the United Kingdom. In his raw lyrics, Oakley Neil Caesar-Su talks about violence, although songs like the one so celebrated tonight, ‘Doja’, add a light note of humor to his repertoire.

It was precisely this song that propelled him internationally, although it was in 2023 when he signed with rapper Dave ‘Sprinter’, which was the first British rap song to surpass the one billion streams mark on Spotify and remained at number 1 on the official UK singles chart for 10 consecutive weeks.

For this reason, when tonight Lisbon witnessed the first chords of the song, the public responded with joy, in one of the concerts with the most attendees of this final day.

During the rest of his performance, the Briton reviewed songs from several of his works such as ‘Sprinter’, ‘Let go’, ‘Band4band’, ‘Wagwan’ and ‘Which one’, which he signed with Drake.

After Central Cee, trap has continued to play in the City of Rock with 21 Savage, who has also offered his only concert in Europe this year.

The rapper is one of Drake’s most frequent collaborators and with him he has signed albums such as ‘Her Loss’ and some of the songs he performed tonight, ‘Rich flex’ among them.

‘Redrum’ and ‘Creepin’ were the most celebrated by the public when the concert was almost two hours long.

Although on the previous day, in which a tireless Rod Stewart and the claim of Cyndi Lauper conquered the City of Rock with a more intergenerational audience, the end of the festival was characterized by the prominence of young people.

“TRAP CASE IS LIKE ROCK IN THE 80’S”

In fact, this is what the creator and person in charge of the festival has foreseen, Roberta Medina, who in a meeting with Spanish media has assured that the ‘trap’ offered by Central Cee or 21 Savage is the new “rock” that has brought this event closer to another type of audience.

“Traditional festivals are made for a specific audience profile, we are not (…) Pop and rock always go faster (ticket sales). Linkin Park’s day was brutal, the first to sell out like never before. But what we are seeing in the case of trap is that it is like rock in the 80s. We older people don’t like it and that’s what happened with rock. It’s another attitude and we have to adapt, embrace and understand. I love when a singer prevails at the festival,” Medina added.

Thus, while on Saturday the profile of the attendees were families and people over 40 dressed in black t-shirts with logos of groups like Ramones or The Rolling Stones, this Sunday the young people wore t-shirts of the rappers.

LOLA ÍNDIGO REPRESENTS SPAIN AT THE APPOINTMENT

The Grenadian Lola Índigo has been in charge of opening the night’s performances and representing urban Spanish music in this edition of the event. Thus, he has picked up the pop baton from Aitana, who performed in the last edition in Lisbon in 2024.

When 8:00 p.m. passed, the ‘School Girl’ singer appeared on stage with her army of dancers, greeting those present and introducing herself to the Portuguese public before singing ‘The Fool’, ‘The School Girl’, ‘Casanova’ or ‘The Pant’.

In this way, the festival has said goodbye with an edition in which music has been almost the only protagonist. The venue, full of constant stimuli such as a Ferris wheel, zip lines, food or makeup stalls, and even a chapel for weddings in which Elvis Presley and Amy Whinehouse served as masters of ceremonies.

The event, which has celebrated its 11th edition, began last week with a ‘sold out’ lineup on June 20 and 21 for performances by Katy Perry, Charlie Puth, Pedro Sampaio, Calema, Linkin Park, Kaiser Chiefs, Cypress Hill, The Pretty Reckless and Grandson. Thus, it brought together 200,000 people in the City of Rock and visitors from more than 125 countries.