Arena Market: Ecuador

Not a huge market but a strategically significant one between Colombia and Peru, Ecuador has been scarred by a surge in armed gang conflict in 2024, a state of emergency declared between January and April as the government attempted to control an unruly cocktail of local and international drug traffickers.

The variable curfew nearly saw off Luis Miguel’s February date at the Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa in Quito, though the show went ahead in the footsteps of other major concerts at the 35,258-cap stadium in recent years by platinum Latin American tourers including Romeo Santos, Bad Bunny, Daddy Yankee, and Ricardo Arjona.

The key arena option in Quito is the 32-year-old, 16,000-cap Coliseo General Rumiñahui, named after a 15th-century Inca military leader who was burned at the stake by Spanish conquistadors. Chile’s Mon Laferte, Spain’s Melendi, and Mexican trio Camila have played there this year.

While Quito, sitting high in the Andes on the slopes of a dormant volcano, is Ecuador’s UNESCO-listed capital, the busy Pacific port city of Guayaquil is another significant market.

Its recently remodelled, 8,000-capacity Coliseo Voltaire Paladines Polo has lately had a strong run, welcoming Camila, Sin Bandera, Rels B, Mora, Danny Ocean, and Fonseca in the past year or so, with Karol G a memorable night in June 2022.