When Brazil meets Argentina at any sport, passions run high, national pride is at stake and supporters expect the very best performance from their teams – and from the organisers of the event.

So when Brazil took on their South American rivals at volleyball on 16 June in the all-new Carioca Arena 1 in Barra Olympic Park, it wasn't only athletes who experienced some pre-match nerves. For the Rio 2016 organising committee, the event would a be test of fire for the venue, with less than two months go until Olympic competition begins in earnest. For the most-watched sports festival in the world, nothing less than a gold-medal standard of spectator experience would do.

They needn't have worried. Not only did Brazil crush their opponents 3-0, but the more than 6,000 spectators who packed into the venue gave the new stadium a resounding chorus of approval.

"I thought the space was very nice to look at and the service was great," local fan Geni Fonseca said.

The gates to Barra Olympic Park opened at midday on Thursday, giving people plenty of time to take their seats before the start of the match at 2.15pm. At the park entrance, golf carts were available to take the elderly, infirm and others to the new venue.

For those on foot, it was about a seven-minute walk from the main entrance to Carioca Arena 1, which during the Olympic Games will host basketball matches rather than volleyball. In the Paralympic Games, the venue will be used for wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby.

Volleyball will be staged at the Maracanãzinho Arena, the spiritual home of the sport in Brazil, during the Olympic Games.

As well as new snack-bars in the arena itself, foodtrucks outside the venue provided spectators with plentiful supplies of food and drink, including barbecued meat, a perennial Brazilian favourite. 

Brazilian team member Serginho said the venue was up there with the best in the world, while Argentina's Rodrigo Quiroga said it was very easy on the eye. Brazilian volleyball fan Mateus de Souza went to watch the USA take on Iran and said that the stadium had got all the basics right; "the seats are comfortable and it's easy to find the toilets."

 Mateus de Souza is Brazilian but went to Carioca Arena 1 to cheer on the USA volleyball team (Photo: Rio 2016/Saulo Pereira Guimarães)

Behind the scenes

The Rio 2016 organising committee is leaving nothing to chance. A team of about 500 people is working on ways to ensure the best possible spectator experience at the Games, from the arrival at each venue to the arrangements for seating, refreshments, toilets and other services until the fans go home at the end of the session.

Organisers have been careful to take into consideration the different habits of fans of each sport, to make sure that their expectations are met and to predict and prepare for the different flows of people in and out of the venues on any given day. 

Spectators are unlikely to go home straight after the end of the event. Organisers expect that each fan who comes to Barra Olympic Park will spend on average about six hours in or around the venues.

"For many people, it will be their only opportunity to visit these venues," says Carolina Ghorayeb, manager of event services at Rio 2016.