Thousands of Brazilians gathered at Rio de Janeiro’s mega-festival Rock in Rio on Friday, many of whom had stood on the artificial grass venue all day to hear headline performer Katy Perry. As her music began, someone else appeared in the bottom corner of the huge screens surrounding the stage – a sign language interpreter.
The red-haired woman – with a thick chain belt across her forehead and a gem between her eyebrows – began to sway, snapping her fingers, then waving her arms as the rhythm gained strength.
The interpreter, Laisa Martins, later told the Associated Press, “It feels like I’m on stage with her, in front of everybody.” And as Katy Perry sang her first verse, Martins began signing.
Rock in Rio is featuring sign language interpreters on its big screens for the first time in its 40-year history. It is one of Latin America’s biggest festivals, drawing 100,000 people a day for seven days, with Sunday being its last day.
Inside a container behind the stage, interpreters sign in front of a green screen, their images projected above the stage so that deaf people in the crowd can follow them. Organizers invite dozens of deaf people and their companions to the VIP area, which is right next to the stage and so close to the speakers that they can feel the beat of the music in their bodies.
Interpreters have become a frequent sight at festivals and concerts in Brazil in recent years. Their sudden ubiquity stems from Brazil’s ambitious 2015 Inclusion Law, which sought to put the country at the global forefront of accessibility and, among other things, established that people with disabilities have the right to access cultural events, while guaranteeing that organizers provide the means to do so.
Some interpreters have made headlines themselves for their talent and flashy outfits, and have thousands of followers on social media. Lenaldo Souza, president of the nationwide sign language interpreters associations, said demand for them has grown so much that many start working before they even finish their education.
According to the National Statistics Institute, 2.3 million people in Brazil are partially or totally deaf. But of those who are totally deaf, less than two-thirds know how to use Brazilian Sign Language, and even fewer know how to use it among those who can hear a little. That’s because people opt for cochlear implants, learn only to read lips, or become deaf later in life, Souza said.
In this way, subtitles can be more effective in conveying song lyrics; Colombian singer Karol G sang so fast at times Friday night that some words were incomprehensible to Amorim, who is not fluent in Spanish. But Amorim said the interpreters convey more than just the lyrics, which they study thoroughly before the show. They dance to the beats and make faces to express the energy and emotion of the music — whether it’s excitement, anger, mystery or sexuality. That gets the crowd excited, both deaf and hearing people excited.
“We express the whole idea of the song with our gestures and bodies. We want to express the whole musical context and literally use our whole bodies,” said Amorim, whose older sister is deaf. “Our legs are amputated there, but during the samba songs, we’re dancing the samba. That’s just the way it is.”
Rock in Rio is already one of the most accessible festivals for deaf people in the world, said Thiago Amaral, its coordinator of multimodality. Still, his team is working to innovate, and future editions could include products similar to the vibrating platform or the vibrating vest tested last year, he said. This year was also the first that Rock in Rio offered audio description earpieces for people with limited vision.
One of the deaf people at Rock in Rio on Friday was Henrique Miranda Martins, 24. His whole family is big into music, especially samba — his uncles play the four-string cavaquinho and the pandeiro, a handheld frame drum — and he was always around it growing up. But Martins has very little hearing in his right ear and none in his left, so he was never able to fully engage or participate.
Last year, he went to his first concert with sign language interpreters, Coldplay, and it became his favorite band – even before his single whose official video shows people signing. Then Martins went to the Lollapalooza festival in Sao Paulo. And last week he went from Sao Paulo with his parents to party at Rock in Rio.
He was most excited to see Brazilian singer Iza on Friday, and was waiting to enter the special section near the stage. Iza began playing, to his left, but he was facing the opposite direction, watching her on a screen with an interpreter in the corner. He danced and gestured with the interpreter, often in sync.
“I can follow the interpreter and I am very happy to be able to feel the music and live this experience,” Martins said, speaking through an interpreter. “For deaf people, this is very important. We can’t stay out here. We need to be inside, with accessibility, with everyone participating in everything. I am very happy.”
Rock in Rio cameras scanning the crowd found Martins in high spirits and attentive. For a few seconds, he appeared on the big screen for all to see, smiling big with his head tilted back and both hands in the air – a sign of applause.
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