The Top 12 Most Attended Concerts in History at Mexico City’s Iconic Zócalo

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.