A Taylor Swift fan spoke on TikTok about the conditions he experienced while attending the Eras Tour in Brazil earlier this month. The user says he experienced some of the same treatment from the venue that ultimately led to the death of Ana Benevides on Nov. 17.
Derick (@derick_rilea) has reached over 2 million views and 243,000 likes on his viral TikTok video by Monday afternoon. Viewers hope the venue, Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos, takes accountability for the death of Ana Benevides and all others harmed.
In his video, Derick starts by saying he had a heat stroke at the Rio de Janeiro Eras Tour concert. “Now that I see that Ana Benevides’ father is looking to investigate the situation,” he says, “I think it’s important that I share my story.”
He hopes his video sheds light on how the venue handled all medical emergencies that day.
When arriving at the stadium, Derick says the chaos started almost immediately. “I could easily perceive that they were not prepared for what they were doing there.”
First, Derick says he chose the nearest gate to enter into the stadium, thinking they all led to the same place. He explains that the ticket he purchased is “Pista Premium,” and this is also the ticket that Ana Benevides reportedly purchased.
At the first entrance tried, Derick says his ticket didn’t work. “Did I buy a fake ticket?” Derick says he asks himself.
Next, he decides to try another gate before worrying himself too much. After asking the workers at the gate if this is the correct entrance for Pista Premium, he says an employee told him, “I’m not sure where you go for that.”
Eventually, Derick finds the correct gate after another fan tells him which direction to head. “The first person in like 20 people I’ve spoken to that actually knows where to go here, that’s alarming,” he adds.
“I knew that we were in a heat wave so I brought two 1.5 liters of water to the venue,” he explains. “I spent 5 reais in total,” he adds, “So I’m like, I got water I’m good.” (One U.S. dollar is about 5 Brazilian reais.)
Once scanning his ticket and arriving at security, Derick says the employee’s told him he had to throw out his water. He says he showed them that the bottles were sealed, and he just needed water because it’s a hot day.
“I’m basically begging him, like can I please bring this in,” he adds, “he’s telling me to go back out the exit and figure out what I’m going to do.”
At this point, Derick says he steps out to drink as much as he can of his water bottles before finally entering the stadium.
“I run to the stage and I get as close as I can,” he says, “I was like one or two people from the barricade.”
He says it’s important to add that he thinks he was right alongside, or very close to Ana Benevides. “Which means we were dealing with the same security there,” he adds.
Derick says this leads him into the next section of chaos, which is during the concert. He says he started needing water pretty quickly after getting into the stadium because of all the running he had done, and since he was in a crowd full of people with weather reaching up to “130 something fahrenheit.”
“Even though I had made the effort to rehydrate myself, that hydration didn’t last long,” he adds.
Derick says he begins to ask the security for water. “They have water to pass out, as they do at every concert venue I’ve ever been too,” he says.
“They’re just ignoring me,” he adds. “They’re looking me in the eyes and doing nothing.”
Next, Derick says about 20 minutes go by, and he finally realizes he needs to leave the crowd. “I’m losing too much water out of my body,” he says. Derrick described his clothes as “drenched.”
After a couple more attempts at getting security’s attention, he says other fans in the crowd helped him reach the barricade in hopes of jumping over. “I’m really close to fainting at this point and don’t have any energy to lift myself over the barricade,” he adds.
Derick says the security guard came up to him screaming, “No, no, no, you go back through the audience!”
@derick_rilea #taylorswift #anabenevides ♬ som original – Derick
“If you can imagine being at the Taylor Swift concert, the front row, it’s really difficult to leave the audience going backwards,” he adds. He also didn’t have the energy to push through people.
The fans around Derick helped him over the barricade themselves, and he says the security guard then dragged him out of the stadium.
“I’m like OK, he’s gonna bring me to a medic,” he says, “No, he brings me to a drink vendor.”
After asking for water for a while, Derick says someone brings over some ice to put on his wrists to try and cool him down. He also says the person started saying, “I can’t feel a pulse.”
This made Derick start thinking, “OK, I’m dying, this is what dying is like.”
“I just assumed that’s what was going on, I just kept saying ‘water, water,’ and they’re not giving me water,” he says.
Derick explains that he couldn’t say anything else other than water at this time, but that the vendors were insisting he needed to pay for it.
When he finally reached his wallet, he says they charged him “40 reais, for what I considered to be about 1 liter of water.”
“So the conversion is, I paid about 24 times what I payed for water outside of the stadium.” he says.
Derick adds that this is an “insane amount for water, especially for someone in a medical emergency.”
After finishing the water, Derick says he immediately starts to feel himself regain consciousness.
Then, he says the vendors told him he needed something sweet and that he should buy a Coke. “I have to pay for it?” he says he asks, “No, I’ve given you enough money, I’m not buying a Coke.”
Fortunately, another fan around Derick overheard and offered him some candy they had.
“The purpose of this story really is that I was not safe at the concert,” Derick says,
“I was undergoing a medical emergency and their only concern was price-gouging me for water.”
Derick says it kills him to know that the same people who were handling his emergency are the same people who could have tended to a dying Ana Benevides.
“I sincerely hope that her family is able to get justice for her life, and I hope that the tragedy of that day can serve as a lesson, if nothing else, for those organizers and the world to better host a concert,” he says, before ending his video.
Viewers agree in the comment section, hoping that the Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos stadium in Rio de Janeiro takes responsibility for the tragedies that day.
“These events could have been avoided!” one comment with over 14,000 likes says, “I’m so sorry you went though that.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Derick via TikTok direct message.
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Source: https://www.dailydot.com/news/ana-benevides-taylor-swifteras-tour/
