Buenos Aires.- Tens of thousands of Carlos ‘Indio’ Solari followers began this Sunday to bid farewell to the Argentine musician in a public ceremony at the José María Gatica sports center, where a crowd is forming lines of more than 35 blocks while fans continued to arrive from different parts of the country.
Several followers held a vigil since Saturday night in the surroundings of the sports complex in the Buenos Aires town of Avellaneda and, when the doors opened at 11:00 local time (14:00 GMT), the line to bid farewell to the artist already exceeded 3.5 kilometers in length.
For several blocks, groups of fans waited for their turn with flags, t-shirts featuring the image of ‘Indio’, and speakers, some of them quite large, from which songs by his iconic band, ‘Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota’, and from his solo career were playing.
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Among those waiting to enter was 48-year-old Vanesa Chave, who arrived with three friends and was carrying a flag with the musician’s image.
“I’ve been listening to Indio since I was very young, I must have been about 15 when I discovered him through a cousin. The truth is that I don’t know if people realize what Indio is and what he generates. The culture he transmits has never been fully recognized, a message that helped a generation a lot,” she told EFE.
“El Indio brought a dawn to music. We were listening to quite basic music and we evolved. Now there are more evolved generations because of his music,” he added.
The musician’s family highlighted this Sunday, through Solari’s official Instagram account, that followers are “making a pilgrimage in peace to where he is waiting and leaving him offerings, songs, applause, and tears.”
“There will be time so that no one is left without saying goodbye. And while we wait and walk, we take care of each other, without distinctions, as we have always done and as he expected of us,” noted the family members, who had already anticipated this Saturday that the ceremony would extend “as long as necessary” and could even last for several days due to the magnitude of the turnout.
Luis Relinque, a 76-year-old pensioner, was also waiting in line, and he highlighted the enduring relevance of the singer’s legacy.
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“I come because I’ve listened to him my whole life. I have a 48-year-old son who continues to listen to him and will continue to listen to him. Singers don’t die,” he stated.
“He was a philosopher, he represented me. All these young people move me,” he added, pointing to the followers who were singing around him, in a celebratory atmosphere.
The authorities deployed a large security and healthcare operation in response to the massive attendance. According to official sources, between 700 and 1,500 police officers are participating in the operation, along with ambulances, medical stations, and health personnel.
The farewell comes two days after Solari’s death, which occurred on Friday at the age of 77 at his home on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
According to the Morón Attorney General’s Office, preliminary autopsy results determined that the musician died from a non-traumatic hemorrhagic stroke while in the heated pool at his home.
Founder of ‘Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota’ together with guitarist Eduardo ‘Skay’ Beilinson in the 1970s, Solari became one of the most influential and popular figures in the history of Argentine rock.
His last concert, held in 2017 in the Buenos Aires city of Olavarría, brought together some 300,000 people in the largest gathering recorded for a musical show in Argentina.
