Much of the city's football team was among what is now listed as 71 people killed in the crash as the plane was carrying people to a major South American tournament match.
It has been revealed the plane was running out of fuel before it plummeted into the mountains.
It was a day of mourning, but, with Brazil's love of football and colour, the grief-stricken country was determined to mark the tragedy in a typically vibrant fashion.
Fans of the Chapecoense football club sang, chanted and lit flares ahead of an official memorial at the Arena Conda stadium in the southern city of Chapeco.
One-tenth of the city, 20,000 people, packed the stadium to capacity and cheered as the club's youth players and reserves from the first team ran laps around the field.
The crowd sang their team's praises and chanted the name of each player who died as the ceremony swung between mourning lives lost and proudly remembering the team's feats.
The crash had marked a tragic end to a fairytale for a humble club that had been in the sport's fourth division just seven years ago.
The Chapecoense squad was on its way to play in the final of the Copa Sudamericana tournament against the Colombian team Atletico Nacional when the plane went down.
A fan named Andrea Oliviera reflected the still disbelieving mood in Chapeco.
"I woke up thinking that it could be a dream, that someone would tell me it wasn't true."
Another fan, Valter Valesi, said he was still numb with shock.
"I would say that it is going to take a lot of time to believe what has happened. This is like a laser. We liked watching the games. The majority of the people liked that. So it is going to take a long time for this to sink in."
Flight recordings have revealed alarm in the cockpit of the stricken plane shortly before the crash.
The flight is in total failure, Bolivian pilot Miguel Quiroga tells ground control, total electrical failure and out of fuel.
Only six people on board survived - three members of the soccer team, a journalist and two crew members.
Brazil has declared three days of mourning.
In the Colombian city of Medellin, where the game was to be held, a similar ceremony was held in its soccer stadium at the same time as Chapeco's.
Medellin mayor Frederico Zuluaga had announced there would be a minute's silence at the ground at the scheduled kick-off time.
"We will honour them with flowers and have asked all citizens to dress in white, to wear white t-shirts and to arrive at the stadium with flowers and to offer a simple and austere, yet nice and heartfelt memorial for all the victims. We'll be here, united as a city and as a society."
Indeed, that city's 46,000-person arena filled up an hour before the ceremony began.
A brief video of the Colombian fans singing in homage to Chapecoense then appeared on the big screen in Chapeco, electrifying that stadium as the crowd sang along.
Atletico Nacional has offered the tournament championship to Chapecoense, but the directors of the Brazilian club say they like the idea of sharing the title.
