Country Profile: Mexico

Right across Latin America, in spite of many dire economic warnings, the live music business came roaring back in 2022, and nowhere more so than in the monster market of Mexico, where even the business’s sagest souls were surprised by the rapacious ability of a concert-starved public to keep up with a torrent of returning stars.

“It’s amazing the way the business came back in Mexico,” OCESA’s director of international talent, Memo Parra, told IQ in June. “It’s just really, really, really, really impressive, the amount of tickets and the time it takes for those tickets to be sold.

“What I was worried about was the amount of shows we had on the books and that the amount would be bigger than demand or that fans would need to decide which to buy tickets for. This year, we have 94 stadium shows, and we are going to have 22 festivals.”

“It’s amazing the way the business came back in Mexico,”

In December 2021, OCESA made headlines when owners Grupo Televisa and Corporación Interamericana de Entretenimiento (Grupo CIE) concluded a deal to sell off 51% of the company to Live Nation – a transaction agreed in summer 2019 but abandoned in May 2020 as the world ground to a halt. OCESA promotes more than 3,100 events for nearly 6m fans annually across Mexico and Colombia and has a strong business in ticketing, sponsorship, F&B, merchandise, and venue operation – including 13 venues across Mexico with a collective capacity of nearly 250,000 seats.

Already the market leader, OCESA promptly stepped up to another level in 2022. This year’s attractions have included Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, Iron Maiden, Justin Bieber, Daddy Yankee, Bad Bunny, and Rammstein, as well as numerous Mexican acts, many of which are as mighty in their homeland as any international star.

This year’s attractions have included Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, Iron Maiden, Justin Bieber, Daddy Yankee, Bad Bunny, and Rammstein

OCESA festivals include Vive Latino, Corona Capital, the Mexican Electric Daisy Carnival, all in Mexico City, and the Coca-Cola Flow Fest in Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara. Likely highlights of 2023 include Muse, Billie Eilish, and the new Smashing Pumpkins-inspired The World Is A Vampire festival in March at Foro Sol.

Grupo Avalanz’s Zignia Live makes a powerful challenger in Mexico. Like OCESA, Zignia Live promotes but also controls venues – including Arena Ciudad de México and Arena Monterrey, the country’s two busiest arenas – another, the new 20,000-cap Arena Guadalajara, is under construction.

In addition, it handles ticketing through its own Superboletos operation, whose sales stand at around 14m tickets annually, with about a 40% market share. Grupo Eco, promoter of festivals such as Ceremonia, Sónar México, Radio Bosque, and Trópico, represents a newer wave of Mexican promoters, with a highly diversified business that touches not only concerts and festivals but bars, venues, an architecture practice, and a PR agency.

Ceremonia is Grupo Eco’s most renowned event, having launched in 2013 in Toluca, Mexico State, and this year moved to Parque Bicentenario in Mexico City, with A$AP Rocky and the Wu-Tang Clan headlining.

Ceremonia is Grupo Eco’s most renowned event, having launched in 2013 in Toluca, Mexico State, and this year moved to Parque Bicentenario in Mexico City, with A$AP Rocky and the Wu-Tang Clan headlining. As well as festivals and shows of its own, Grupo Eco partners with the far larger OCESA on numerous projects.

“We do not see [OCESA] as a competitor but as a great ally. In the vast majority of live projects, we are partners with OCESA, but we believe in more alternative festivals and more specific niches where OCESA does not reach,” Grupo Eco co-founder Andrés Méndez said recently. Monterrey-based Apodaca Group, meanwhile, is a long- established Mexican promoter with strength in regional Mexico, promoting numerous Mexican, Latin, and international artists from Monterrey to Tijuana, with shows this year including Gorillaz, Dua Lipa, and Ricky Martin.