Since the late 1990s, Mexico City’s Plaza de la Constitución, better known as the Zócalo, has been the spot for musical events that have turned the country’s main public square into the biggest stage for massive and unforgettable shows.
The last major crowd event hosted at the so-called First Square of the nation’s capital was the screening of the iconic Mexican singer-songwriter Juan Gabriel’s first concert at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in 1990. This event, held last Saturday (Nov. 8), brought together 170,000 people, according to data from the city government. The screening was organized by Netflix to promote the docuseries Juan Gabriel: I Must, I Can, I Will (or in Spanish, Juan Gabriel: Debo, puedo y quiero), which had premiered just days earlier.
This was the second time a concert by the late “Divo de Juárez” at Bellas Artes was screened in the plaza. A similar event took place in September 2024, when the screening of his 2013 performance at Mexico’s most prestigious cultural venue drew 70,000 people.
Mexico City’s Zócalo is considered an iconic and highly significant location, as it is a square full of symbolism where politics, social movements, culture, and religion converge. It is the second-largest public square in the world, only behind Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
One of the earliest recorded concerts held at the Zócalo was by Los Tigres del Norte in 1999, which lasted nearly three hours. Since then, Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, Justin Bieber, Shakira, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs and Grupo Firme have been among the artists who have performed there in front of thousands of people — in some cases even declaring that this was the “biggest” show of their careers, as happened with Spanish star Rosalía and New York band Interpol.
Here are the 12 most massive concerts held in recent years at Mexico City’s Zócalo, according to official figures from the city government. Check out which one takes the No. 1 spot!
Editor’s Note: The list is ranked from lowest to highest attendance and only includes live performances. In the case of a tie, entries are listed in alphabetical order.
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Los Tigres del Norte
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}The legendary Mexican-American band captivated Mexico City’s Zócalo on the night of September 15, 2022, in a massive concert for Mexico’s Independence Day, bringing together 140,000 attendees.
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Interpol
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}On April 20 of last year, the New York band held the largest concert of their career, according to the group’s social media accounts, bringing together 160,000 people.
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Rosalía
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}On April 28, 2023, the Spanish superstar closed the North American leg of her Motomami tour with a free concert in Mexico City’s Zócalo, where she gathered 160,000 people, the largest show of her career to date, according to the singer.
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Café Tacvba
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}The popular Mexican rock quartet made history by becoming the first artist or group to draw a crowd of 170,000 people to the city’s Primer Cuadro on June 4, 2005. But it wasn’t all fun and games: during the show, more than 200 people were injured, authorities reported at the time.
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Residente
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}The former member of Calle 13 brought his combative rhymes and messages of Latin American pride and resistance in support of Palestine to the Zócalo on September 6 before an audience of 180,000 people.
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Roger Waters
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}The former Pink Floyd member gave one of the most memorable free concerts ever held in the Zócalo, when on October 1, 2016, he drew a crowd of around 200,000 people to the square.
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Shakira
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}The Colombian superstar snatched the attendance record in the Zócalo from Café Tacvba by gathering 210,000 attendees on May 27, 2007, surpassing the 170,000 people that the Mexican group drew in 2005.
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Justin Bieber
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}The Canadian idol drew a crowd of 215,000 people to his concert in the heart of the Mexican capital on June 11, 2012.
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Vicente Fernández
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}It was his first time at the Zócalo, and the great Chente made the most of it: he sang for three hours to 219,000 people gathered on February 14, 2009, and in doing so became the artist who had drawn the largest crowd to date.
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Paul McCartney
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}The concert that the former Beatle gave on May 10, 2012, in the city’s Historic Center surpassed his equally legendary concert in Moscow’s Red Square in 2003 — which was also free and drew a crowd of 100,000 — by bringing together 230,000 fans in Mexico.
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Grupo Firme
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}The superstars of regional Mexican music were the first artists to break the attendance record at the Zócalo when they drew a crowd of 280,000 people on September 25, 2022.
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Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
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}The Argentine rock band achieved a milestone on June 3, 2023, by becoming the artist or group that has drawn the largest crowd to the Plaza de la Constitución, with a record 300,000 people. It surpassed the record set by Grupo Firme, which drew 280,000 people a year earlier.
