The second day of Mexico’s AXE Ceremonia festival was cancelled after two photographers were killed after a crane carrying a “decorative object” collapsed on the site.

The two-day event at Bicentennial Park in Mexico City was due to conclude yesterday with performances by acts such as Tyler the Creator, Massive Attack and The Marías, but was suspended by local authorities on Saturday evening (5 April).

The Attorney General’s Office of Mexico City has opened an investigation into the incident, which AP reports occurred at around 5.30pm on Saturday when a gust of wind shook the structure, causing it to fall on the photographers.

The festival was promoted by Mexico City-headquartered Eco Live, with marketing assistance provided by Ocesa. Ticket-holders will be refunded.

“With deep sadness, we confirm the passing of the two people who were injured during today’s incident,” reads a statement by organisers. “We are deeply heartbroken by this loss. We are reaching out to their families to support them during this incredibly difficult time and to provide them with all our care and solidarity.

“The safety of our community has always been our priority”

“The safety of our community has always been our priority, and we continue, as from the very beginning, to maintain close collaboration and complete transparency with the authorities. We will continue to share official updates about the event through our social media channels.”

The two victims have been identified as Berenice Giles and Miguel Hernandez, who were both in their 20s and were working as journalists at the festival for Mexican university publication Mr Indie.

“Berenice and Miguel will be remembered for everything they contributed in life,” reads a tribute by the magazine. “Their gaze behind the lens, their sensitivity and their energy are still with us.”

The venue has also released a statement expressing its solidarity with the families and friends of the victims, and pledging to fully cooperate with the authorities.

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Lady Gaga’s The Mayhem Ball arena tour sold out during its onsale yesterday, as fans rushed to snap up tickets to 45 shows across North America and Europe.

In response to fan demand, promoter Live Nation added 13 extra dates to the run, which included doubling her run at New York City’s Madison Square Garden (cap. 19,500) to a total of six nights at the iconic venue.

Before launching her tour at Las Vegas’s T-Mobile Arena (20,000) in July, the CAA-represented singer-songwriter is due to headline Coachella and play multi-night stadium stints in Mexico City and Singapore.

Over 1.6 million fans attempted to buy tickets for her four-night run in Southeast Asia, according to local media, with over 200,000 local and international fans expected to descend on the National Stadium (55,000) for her first Singapore shows in 13 years.

Also in May, Gaga will voyage to Brazil to hold a landmark free concert on Rio’s Copacabana Beach, produced by promoter Bonus Track in partnership with Live Nation. Previous shows at the site from Madonna and the Rolling Stones have both drawn in over 1.5 million fans.

“I wanted to create a different kind of experience”

Throughout the Mayhem run, she’ll perform multiple nights in Seattle, New York, Miami, Toronto, Chicago, London, Stockholm, Milan, Barcelona, Berlin, and more. This tour marks Gaga’s first North American and Europe/UK run since her 2022 Chromatica Ball Tour. 

That endeavour, which grossed $112.4 million from 834,000 tickets sold according to Billboard Boxscore, saw the 14-time Grammy Award-winner elevate to stadiums, while this upcoming trek will see her return to arena-level for the first time in seven years.

“I wasn’t planning to tour this year after my shows in Singapore but the incredible response to the new album inspired me to keep things going,” Gaga posted on Instagram. “It came together super quickly thanks to Arthur Fogel and the amazing team at Live Nation, who planned a global tour in just a few weeks. We chose arenas this time to give me the opportunity to control the details of the show in a way you simply can’t in stadiums – and honestly, I can’t wait. This show is designed to be the kind of theatrical and electrifying experience that brings Mayhem to life exactly how I envision it.”

Delivering her live show to fans was a key driver behind her 2024 concert film, Gaga Chromatica Ball, of which she was heavily involved in the process. Production company Blink detailed the process of capturing one show at Dodger Stadium (cap. 56,000) to IQ earlier this year.

“We spent months in the edit suite with Gaga in person, who directed the film herself and was hands-on with every single cut,” shared Blink founder and CEO Tom Colbourne.

This outing is in support of her latest studio album, Mayhem, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and quickly became Gaga’s seventh consecutive No. 1 album.

Fans can expect to be “closer, more connected” on this arena run

The full list of shows for 2025 is as follows:

Fri Apr 11 – Indio, CA – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival

Fri Apr 18 – Indio, CA – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival

Sat Apr 26 – Mexico City, Mexico – Estadio GNP Seguros

Sun Apr 27 – Mexico City, Mexico – Estadio GNP Seguros

Sat May 3 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Copacabana Beach

Sun May 18 – Singapore – National Stadium

Mon May 19 – Singapore – National Stadium

Wed May 21 – Singapore – National Stadium

Sat May 24 – Singapore – National Stadium

North America

Wed Jul 16 – Las Vegas, NV – T-Mobile Arena

Fri Jul 18 – Las Vegas, NV – T-Mobile Arena

Sat Jul 19 – Las Vegas, NV – T-Mobile Arena – ADDED SHOW

Wed Aug 06 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena

Thu Aug 07 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena

Sat Aug 09 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena – ADDED SHOW

Fri Aug 22 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden

Sat Aug 23 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden

Tue Aug 26 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden

Wed Aug 27 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden – ADDED SHOW

Sun Aug 31 – Miami, FL – Kaseya Center

Mon Sep 01 – Miami, FL – Kaseya Center

Wed Sep 03 – Miami, FL – Kaseya Center – ADDED SHOW

Sat Sep 06 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden – ADDED SHOW

Sun Sep 07 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden – ADDED SHOW

Wed Sep 10 – Toronto, ON – Scotiabank Arena

Thu Sep 11 – Toronto, ON – Scotiabank Arena

Sat Sep 13 – Toronto, ON – Scotiabank Arena – ADDED SHOW

Mon Sep 15 – Chicago, IL – United Center

Wed Sep 17 – Chicago, IL – United Center

Thu Sep 18 – Chicago, IL – United Center – ADDED SHOW

Europe/UK

Mon Sep 29 – London, UK – The O2

Tue Sep 30 – London, UK – The O2

Thu Oct 02 – London, UK – The O2

Sat Oct 04 – London, UK – The O2 – ADDED SHOW

Tue Oct 07 – Manchester, UK – Co-op Live

Wed Oct 08 – Manchester, UK – Co-op Live – ADDED SHOW

Sun Oct 12 – Stockholm, Sweden – Avicii Arena

Mon Oct 13 – Stockholm, Sweden – Avicii Arena

Wed Oct 15 – Stockholm, Sweden – Avicii Arena – ADDED SHOW

Sun Oct 19 – Milan, Italy – Unipol Forum

Mon Oct 20 – Milan, Italy – Unipol Forum

Tue Oct 28 – Barcelona, Spain – Palau Sant Jordi

Wed Oct 29 – Barcelona, Spain – Palau Sant Jordi

Fri Oct 31 – Barcelona, Spain – Palau Sant Jordi – ADDED SHOW

Tue Nov 04 – Berlin, Germany – Uber Arena

Wed Nov 05 – Berlin, Germany – Uber Arena

Sun Nov 09 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Ziggo Dome

Tue Nov 11 – Antwerp, Belgium – Sportpaleis Arena

Thu Nov 13 – Lyon, France – LDLC Arena

Fri Nov 14 – Lyon, France – LDLC Arena

Mon Nov 17 – Paris, France – Accor Arena

Tue Nov 18 – Paris, France – Accor Arena

Thu Nov 20 – Paris, France – Accor Arena

Sat Nov 22 – Paris, France – Accor Arena – ADDED SHOW

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The inaugural Afterlife Festival Mexico City has been cancelled due to “unforeseen technical and licensing issues with the venue”.

The two-day event was the brainchild of DJ duo Tale of US – known individually as Anyma and Mrak – who run the Afterlife record label.

The festival, promoted by the duo’s Afterlife Tulum collaborator Zamna, would have taken place on 9 and 10 May at outdoor sports facility Hipódromo de las Americas.

“We are deeply saddened to announce that Afterlife Festival Mexico City, scheduled for May 9 and 10 at Hipódromo de las Americas will not take place due to unforeseen technical and licensing issues with the venue,” Zamna said in a statement. “We explored every possible solution, but the situation prevents us from delivering the experience you deserve.”

“We explored every possible solution, but the situation prevents us from delivering the experience you deserve”

The promoter confirmed that tickets would be refunded automatically.

Afterlife Festival Mexico City was announced at the same time as Afterlife Festival Barcelona, which is expected to run as planned on 13 and 14 June. Anyma, Mind Against, Kevin De Vries, Mrak, Camelphat, Gordon and more have been confirmed to perform.

Afterlife Festival has taken place since 2018 in cities including New York, London, Tulum, Bucharest, Barcelona, Milan, Dubai, Saõ Paulo, Zurich and more.

Anyma, real name Matteo Milleri, recently became the first electronic music act to headline the 17,500-seat/20,000-cap Sphere in Las Vegas.

Afterlife presents Anyma ‘The End of Gensys’ Live took place across 12 nights, beginning on 27 December last year and wrapping up earlier this month.

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Latin pop icon Miguel Bosé was forced to pause his Friday night concert in Mexico City after a 5.5 magnitude earthquake hit the region.

The 68-year-old was 40 minutes into his first concert in almost a decade at the 10,000-capacity National Auditorium when the city’s seismic alarm went off.

The sold-out crowd was subsequently guided out of the venue by staff while Bosé and his musicians awaited instructions backstage.

Around 15 minutes later Bosé returned to the stage after safety personnel conducted necessary checks and deemed the arena secure. No injuries were reported.

The 68-year-old was 40 minutes into his first concert in almost a decade when the city’s seismic alarm went off

The Spanish-Italian singer – who did not comment on the incident – performed a second show at the National Auditorium the following night (15 March) on his Importante Tour.

Other concerts that were temporarily interrupted included Mexican singer-songwriter Christian Nodal at the Plaza de Toros La México and Argentine rapper C.R.O at Pepsi Center.

The earthquake struck Mexico’s southern state of Oaxaca on Friday evening (14 March) but minimal damage had been reported, according to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

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Competing with last year’s record edition of Corona Capital was no small feat but lead talent buyer Ricardo Gómez says Mexico’s biggest festival is on an upward trajectory.

The 14th edition of the Ocesa-promoted festival took place last week (15–17 November) at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez racetrack in Mexico City.

The Friday drew 74,000 attendees for performances from the likes of Green Day, Toto and Zedd, while the Saturday attracted 69,000 for a lineup headlined by Shawn Mendes, Melanie Martinez and New Order.

Thanks to a headline set by Paul McCartney, the Sunday drew the largest number of attendees in the history of Corona Capital with nearly 82,000 people. It marked the ex-Beatle’s debut at a Latin American music festival and the grand finale of his tour in the region.

“Having a legend like Paul McCartney playing in the festival was nothing short of a dream come true for many of us,” Gómez told IQ.

“There is an amazing team behind Corona Capital and every year we look for opportunities to improve and ask ourselves how can we make the festival better?” he adds. “Based on the overall experience this year and the feedback we’ve received so far, it seems that we’re moving in the right direction.”

Though Corona Capital is going from strength to strength, the talent buyer is candid about the current challenges in the festival landscape.

“Having a legend like Paul McCartney playing in the festival was nothing short of a dream come true for many of us”

“Although 2023 was a record year for us, we had many important lessons to learn this year, from pricing to bookings, schedules, profitability, marketing, etc,” he says.

“Nowadays, the way most artists approach festival performances from a production perspective is particularly challenging. In the past most non-headliners would feel comfortable sharing a common festival rider. Now every artist from top to bottom wants their own rider for their performance. While we understand that they want to deliver the best possible show for their fans and maximize the event’s success, finding the right balance can be difficult.”

It’s perhaps these challenges that have led to Ocesa hitting pause on sister event Corona Capital Guadalajara, as well as Tecate Coordenada – also based in Guadalajara.

As Ocesa’s head of festivals, Leizer Guss, told IQ earlier this year, the company is “reassessing” its vast stable of events.

“I think we are getting to that saturation point,” said Guss. “Is that saturation point because of festivals or because of festivals plus shows? We are figuring it out. Either way, we’ll take a step back and won’t launch any new festivals in Mexico City next year.

“We’ll also take a very close look at our existing festivals and ask ‘Is this really an annual thing or is it bi-annual or a once-off when the conditions are right’?”

The Live Nation-backed promoter organises 23 festivals across the country including ARRE, Vive Latino, Hera and Coca-Cola Flow Fest – which is taking place this weekend.

Closing the chapter on this year’s Corona Capital, Gómez says: “We’re extremely lucky to have such an amazing group of extremely hard-working people behind the festival, who are so committed and passionate about what they do. Without them Corona Capital wouldn’t be where it is today.”

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Mexico City is set to gain a new 20,000-capacity festival this November, headlined by Anderson .Paak and the Free Nationals and Jungle.

Simifest will take place on 23 November in Bicentennial Park with supporting acts including Motel, Ely Guerra, Technicolor Fabrics and Ruzzi.

The festival has been organised by Mexico’s largest pharmacy chain, Farmacias Similares.

In the live music world, Farmacias Similares is synonymous with its moustachioed mascot doll, Doctor Simi, which has been hurled at countless superstars during concerts.

The well-documented phenomenon began at the Corona Capital 2021 festival, when a young woman threw the stuffed doll at Norwegian singer Aurora during her performance.

Simifest will take place on 23 November in Bicentennial Park with acts including Motel, Ely Guerra and Technicolor Fabrics

The exchange gained momentum on social media the next day, causing the trend to spread around the world at concerts by artists such as Adele, Karol G, Coldplay, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Lady Gaga, The Killers, Dua Lipa, Justin Bieber and My Chemical Romance.

“The Mexican public is always looking for ways that they can connect with their idols. And Dr. Simi has become just this connection between the public and the artist,” Javier Jarquín, editor-in-chief of popular Mexican music magazine Kuadro, told VICE in 2023.

Capitalising on the popularity of Doctor Simi, the pharmacy has launched Simifest to raise money for its social and environmental assistance foundations.

Proceeds from the festival, which costs 1,645 pesos (about €76/$82) to attend, will go to the reforestation efforts of its foundations.

“Simifest has an environmental purpose,” explained Victor Gonzalez Herrera at a press conference. “For each ticket sold, a life bomb will be generated that will be launched during the rainy season [November]; this innovative reforestation method consists of throwing spheres made of clay, soil, compost and seeds from small planes to restore hard-to-reach areas more effectively.”

crossovers que no sabía que necesitaba pic.twitter.com/Ia4yhuQa3r

— la combi cuidado con el perro (@tonayantears) November 22, 2021

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Ocesa’s head of festivals Leizer Guss has spoken to IQ about the challenges and opportunities in Mexico’s rapidly developing festival market.

The Live Nation-backed promoter organises 23 festivals across the country including Coca-Cola Flow Fest, ARRE, Vive Latino and Hera – the majority of which take place in the second half of the year.

Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), however, has already toasted a successful 2024 edition with a record 100,000 daily attendees. The 10th edition saw the likes of Steve Aoki, Skrillex, Deadmau5 and Armin van Buuren perform at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez between 23–25 February.

“We had a very solid dance music lineup – nothing out of the ordinary,” Guss tells IQ. “With an annual three-day festival with nine stages, you repeat acts every two or three years. But it was an anniversary edition and so there were fans who had been there from the very beginning of EDC Mexico and new fans who are in their prime raving years.”

Meanwhile, Tecate Emblema “took a step forward” with its 2024 edition, according to Guss, with a blockbuster lineup that included Calvin Harris, Christina Aguilera, Sam Smith and Nelly Furtado. “It’s still finding its essence but it’s always growing – even if in small steps,” he adds.

Looking towards the company’s busiest season for festivals, Guss is realistic about the fortunes of the remaining events.

“We launched ARRE festival last year and it was like catching lightning in a bottle”

“Coca-Cola Flow Fest won’t grow this year because the genre has stabilized and Corona Capital will have a decent year because it’s very well-established,” he says. “We launched ARRE festival last year and did numbers that we would never expect for a first year – it was born as a four-year-old.

“The fans are still there but it’s not sustainable to maintain the growth of last year – it was like catching lightning in a bottle.”

As Guss points out, most of Ocesa’s events are genre-driven, which means the success of an edition hinges largely on where the genre is at that time.

“It’s all cyclical. It’ll be a good year for dance music and then it’ll be a bad year – fans change their minds a lot,” he adds. But the festivals are tied to their genres for better or worse: “The worst-ever edition of Corona Capital [a predominantly rock festival] is when we started going into the DJ world and fans didn’t like that,” laughs Guss.

One advantage of organising genre-driven festivals is that the widely reported ‘headliner drought’ hasn’t had as much impact. “Getting headliners wasn’t as hard because you simply look for the biggest artist in the genre,” he says. “You don’t need the multi-dimensional popstars like Billie Eilish who are non-existent at festivals this year.”

However, the promoter has found it hard to contend with the rewards of a booming touring business, which artists are increasingly choosing over the festival circuit.

“The Live Nation acquisition has taken us to the next level”

“After the pandemic, the touring business was so wildly successful that bigger acts started taking a lot more money,” says Guss. “When they came off that cycle two years later, they decided they’ll only go back out for the same money. So they’re deciding between that and festivals. But mid-tier festivals can’t pay what new headliners are asking.

“And when you don’t have ‘real’ headliners, fans start to see it and say ‘Oh we’ll go to the festival next year’. The Y.O.L.O mentality that was present in the aftermath of the pandemic has gone.”

Fortunately for Ocesa, which has both a festival arm and a touring business, there’s potential for the two to go hand-in-hand rather than work against each other. And with Mexico’s live music market rapidly developing and the backing of Live Nation, Ocesa’s deals are more attractive than ever.

“The acquisition has taken us to the next level,” says Guss. “We can get to an artist and give them a 24-month plan for Mexico that includes touring and festivals. We can say ‘Come and do a stadium run right now with crazy money’ and do festivals next year. Even though it looks smaller, it gives them something to do in a year and a half.

“We are taking bigger risks, betting on artists now and paying them something that looks ridiculous, but in three or six months, it might be low. And some of them will want to come back and renegotiate but that’s the new part of the game.”

“We are taking bigger risks, betting on artists now and paying them something that looks ridiculous, but in three or six months, it might be low”

According to Guss, major international artists are now putting Mexico in their world tours from the get-go but there’s still some way to go until standalone tours are viable.

“Mexico City is a huge market compared to LA or New York but the problem is that touring by ground for an Anglo artist isn’t up to scratch yet,” says Guss. “You’re really talking about touring three cities: Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. Local production in these cities is getting to a point where you can ask for whatever you need and it’ll be there so now we’re developing the next three or four cities so artists can bring their production and tour like in the US.”

Looking to the future of Ocesa’s festival business, Guss says the company will “reassess” its vast stable of events.

“I think we are getting to that saturation point,” he says. “Is that saturation point because of festivals or because of festivals plus shows? We are figuring it out. Either way, we’ll take a step back and won’t launch any new festivals in Mexico City next year.

“We’ll also take a very close look at our existing festivals and ask ‘Is this really an annual thing or is it bi-annual or a once-off when the conditions are right’?

“I think, generally, festivals will have ‘off years’ where we lose some of the hype and we’ll have to work and get creative. If a fan is paying top dollar for a festival, it has to be one of the most special days of the year.”

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Mexico City’s newly renovated GNP Seguros Stadium (previously called Foro Sol) was unveiled last week with three sold-out concerts by Bruno Mars.

Inaugurated in 1993, the 65,000-capacity venue is the world’s only permanent stadium that is purpose-built for concerts.

“The goal of other stadiums is usually sport or some other event,” the stadium’s architect Pepe Moyao tells IQ. “Usually, in those venues, you lose a bleacher when you put in a stage. That doesn’t happen in GNP Seguros Stadium – it’s built for concerts. We also have the flexibility to move the stage – back or forward or into the middle – and to host whatever concert is wanted.”

The venue’s operator, Live Nation-backed Ocesa, declined to reveal the cost of the latest update but Mexico City’s head of government Martí Batres recently revealed that the firm has invested 2.3 billion pesos (€36m/US$121m) since the stadium opened in the ’90s.

Following the renovation, the GNP Seguros Stadium now boasts a roof spanning more than 13,000 m² (139,930.84 ft²) that collects rainwater stored for reuse, plus 280 state-of-the-art screens to improve the viewing of the shows inside the venue and provide timely information to attendees.

“The stadium will continue being the global benchmark venue where the best national and international artists connect with their fans”

Other additions include more comfortable seating, new and improved spaces for food and beverage consumption, hospitality areas for the public and corporate clients, panoramic elevators, more accessible spaces, increased restrooms, and internal and peripheral lighting that will allow better visibility and safety.

Ocesa founder and CEO, Alejandro Soberón Kuri, said the renovations will enable the stadium to “continue being the global benchmark venue where the best national and international artists connect with their fans”.

While Ocesa COO George Gonzalez told IQ the firm expects a banner year for the venue, which will likely beat last year’s ‘incredible’ ticket sales despite being closed for six months.

The venue closed in February 2024 and was originally due to re-open in September with a concert by Metallica but the renovation was sped up to secure Bruno Mars’s first shows in Mexico for six years.

For the stadium’s first renewal since 1993, Ocesa enlisted Pepe Moyao, the renowned architect behind the original stadium and other iconic music venues such as Auditorio Telmex (cap. 11,500) in Guadalajara and Pepsi Center (7,500) in Mexico City.

“Since the [first stadium build], international artists have always been in mind”

The first incarnation of the stadium – four huge temporary bleachers – was assembled in November 1993, especially for Madonna, who performed three shows there as part of her world tour The Girlie Show.

These shows marked the beginning of large-scale concerts in Mexico, which until then was only equipped to host shows with up to 20,000 attendees.

The temporary stadium, then named Foro Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, also hosted concerts with Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones.

Given the success of the blockbuster concerts, Moyao was commissioned to build the permanent stadium, which opened in October 1997 with a concert by David Bowie as part of his Earthling Tour.

“Since the beginning, international artists have always been in mind,” Moyao told IQ. “And all the new amenities in GNP Seguros Stadium are a result of what we have learned during these 30 years. I know the chain of command very well now, from production to ticketing to food and beverage. Many of the people that work for my company are younger people who go to the stadium and have given feedback on their lived experience.”

“All the new amenities in GNP Seguros Stadium are a result of what we have learned during these 30 years”

Crowd flow in the venue was especially important in the renovation design as the GNP Seguros Stadium is part of a complex, which is operated by Ocesa and includes the 26,000-capacity Sports Palace (Palacio de los Deportes) and Formula 1 racetrack Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez runs through the standing section of GNP Seguros Stadium while another corner of the racetrack is used to host Ocesa’s biggest Mexico City festivals such as Corona Capital, Coca-Cola Flow Fest and Electric Daisy Carnival.

Other artists lined up to perform at the new GNP Seguros Stadium include Feid, Natanael Cano, Caifanes, Eric Clapton, The Killers, Blink 182, Paul McCartney, Iron Maiden, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Morat and Twenty One Pilots.

In other news, Ocesa announced yesterday that it will open a new 40,000-capacity complex in Bogotá, Colombia.

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Mexican promoter OCESA has announced plans to launch a new festival called Hera HSBC, exclusively featuring female talent.

The event is set to take place on 24 August at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez racetrack in Mexico City, with a mix of international and domestic artists.

Camila Cabello, Demi Lovato, Kesha, Tasha Sultana and Evanescence are set to perform at the two-stage event, which is expected to draw between 50,000 and 60,000 people.

Mexican singer-songwriter Ximena Sariñana is also slated to perform, and has spearheaded the all-female industry committee driving the event.

Female technicians, promoters, audio engineers, managers, cultural managers and more specialists from the music industry and live shows will also participate in the first edition of Hera HSBC, according to OCESA.

“I think that for us it was also very important that the festival felt different, being such a unique festival in its creation and what it represents, it was very important that this sisterhood that exists between women was felt from the origin of the festival,” Sariñana told Billboard Español.

“The Hera Festival responds to the social moment we are experiencing in Mexico, and also responds to public demand”

Itzel González, promoter of the festival, added “The Hera Festival responds to the social moment we are experiencing in Mexico, and also responds to public demand. It is true that in the past girl bands were very striking, but they were very few. But now the number of female singers and of all regional genres, rock, pop, hip hop is tremendous! Since we designed this festival, there was talk that we wanted something very multi-genre, and that it would sound regional Mexican, trap, hip-hop, not just be governed by a genre like rock and pop.”

González went on to say a festival entirely carried out by women “will give a very good feeling to society” that there are changes, and that people have also been modifying their ideology around different issues. Mexico has been leading the way on feminist issues in Latin America, in recent years winning battles on issues such as the decriminalisation of abortion at the national level.

The Hera HSBC lineup also includes Danna Paola, Maria Becerra, Yahritza y Su Esencia, Bomba Estéreo, Ely Guerra, Daniela Spalla, Francisca Valenzuela and Ladytron.

Linda Perry, Hello Seahorse!, Rubio, Juliana, Kaia Lana, Las Villa, Lido Pimienta, Natalia Lacunza, Villano Antillano, Yami Safdie and the Regional Women’s Band Mujeres del Viento Florido are also featured.

OCESA, which is backed by Live Nation, recently announced the reopening of the 65,000-capacity Mexico’s Foro Sol (now GNP Seguros Stadium after renovation).

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Mexico’s Foro Sol has been been given a new name ahead of its reopening with a concert by Bruno Mars later this summer.

Operated by Ocesa, the 65,000-cap Mexico City site will now be known as the GNP Seguros Stadium after securing a naming rights deal with insurance company GNP.

The venue, which opened in 1993, has been closed for renovation since early 2024, but will relaunch with Mars’ performance on 10 August.

“The GNP Seguros Stadium will reopen its doors to continue being the global benchmark venue where the best national and international artists connect with their fans,” says Ocesa founder and CEO Alejandro Soberón Kuri. “Thanks to GNP Seguros for being the ally with which this venue will live a new era.”

Other upcoming shows at the stadium include four nights by Metallica (20, 22, 27 & 29 September), plus two dates with The Killers (5-6 October), as well as headline shows by Feid, Natanael Cano, Caiphanes Eric Clapton, Blink-182, Iron Maiden, The Fabulous Cadillacs, Morat and Twenty One Pilots.

Mars will embark on a 14-date tour of Brazil in the autumn, including multiple stadium concerts

Following the Mexico gig, Mars will also become the first act to play at the new 18,000-cap Intuit Dome in Los Angeles on 15 and 16 August before resuming his Las Vegas residency at Dolby Live on 20 August.

In the autumn, the hitmaker will embark on a 14-date tour of Brazil, including multiple stadium concerts. The run will stop at São Paulo’s Estádio MorumBIS for six nights on 4-5, 8-9 and 12-13 October, followed by three shows at Estádio Nilton Santos in Rio de Janeiro (16, 19-20 October).

The 38-year-old American will then perform two gigs each at Arena BRB Mané Garrincha in the capital Brasilia (26-27 October) and Estádio Couto Pereira, Curitiba (31 October & 1 November), finishing up at Estádio Mineirão, Belo Horizonte, on 5 November.

Mars has already proven to be a huge draw in Brazil, headlining two sold out days at the inaugural edition of 105,000-cap Rock in Rio spin-off festival The Town, which debuted in São Paulo last year. The star also made history in Japan with seven sold-out shows at the 55,000-capacity Tokyo Dome in early 2024.

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