Brazil reaches peak gender reveal as dyed waterfall investigated for ‘possible environmental damage’ (@publicoutsider/Twitter)
A couple in Brazil has added to a growing list of ridiculous and potentially dangerous gender reveals after they dyed a 60-foot-tall waterfall blue, and are now being investigated for potential environmental damage.
The couple, whose identities have not been revealed, reportedly released blue dye into a waterfall along the Queima Pé river on Sunday (25 September) to celebrate the gender of their baby. They also set off blue-coloured smoke bombs.
According to Brazilian news site G1, the couple has since deleted the video of the gender reveal from their social media, but clips are still online.
The outlet also revealed that the Secretary of State for the Environment (Sema-MT) in Mato Grosso in central west Brazil, is “investigating the incident and will determine if there was environmental damage”.
“A team composed of two servers from Sema-MT and four servers from the Secretary of the Municipality of Tangará da Serra are on site and nearby investigating the complaint,” the department told G1.
The person in charge of the gender reveal party reportedly told G1 that no chemical product was used to dye the waterfall, and they would make a further statement after the investigation has taken place.
Couple paints a waterfall blue in #Brazil to make a gender reveal, Environment department is investigating the case 🃏 pic.twitter.com/eb2vjh6PqE
— Public Outsider (@publicoutsider) September 27, 2022
A trend that initially started with simple blue-and pink-coloured cakes has been criticised in recent years for going way too far, with one party causing a plane crash in Texas, a young-father-to-be that was sadly killed in a “freak” gender reveal explosion accident, and the now-infamous gender reveal party in California that sparked a raging wildfire leading to mass evacuations and destroying more than 7,000 acres of forest.
By far the craziest gender reveal in recent years – and fortunately one that didn’t involve death or destruction – however, was put on by two influencers in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, who projected the sex of their child onto the world’s tallest tower, costing a reported $140,000.
The gender reveal in September 2020 saw influencers Anas and Asala Marwah splash “it’s a boy!” in bright blue onto the 830m-tall Burj Khalifa – with only the lighting technicians clued-in to the baby’s gender beforehand.
In a YouTube video uploaded onto the couple’s joint account, Asala said: “I am trying my best to give content that no one has ever seen before.
“To me, doing it in this way is something very big.”
The video documenting the bizarre gender reveal now has over 42 million views.