They Sang, They Danced, They Camped Out: What Fans Did for Bad Bunny

The award-winning Puerto Rican artist, the most-streamed on the planet, is performing eight concerts in Mexico. People flocked from all over the world, including the United States.

Dec. 20, 2025

Donovan Omar Cruz Reyes, his aunt and cousin were the first people to set up their tent outside of a Bad Bunny concert venue at 6 a.m. Monday, hoping to get a spot near the stage when the doors opened.

The concert, though, wasn’t until 9 p.m. Tuesday.

“At first, I thought maybe I was the only crazy one who followed him, because I started since he wasn’t well known,” said Mr. Cruz Reyes, 24, an auto-parts factory worker. He and his relatives had traveled by bus from Guanajuato, Mexico, at 2 a.m. to get to Mexico City. “But I realize that’s not the case.”

More than a half-million people from across Mexico and the rest of the world — including the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands — were expected to descend on GNP Seguros Stadium this week to see Bad Bunny’s eight sold-out concerts, which end on Sunday.

The astonishing success of the genre-melding Puerto Rican artist, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, has remade the pop landscape for Spanish-language music. Four times since 2020, including this year, he has been the most streamed artist on the planet.

After wrapping up a 30-show residency in Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny embarked on an eight-month world tour of his latest album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” an ode to the traditional sounds of the island. Mexico City is Bad Bunny’s longest stop in Latin America.

The Mexican promoter of his concerts said that people from 77 countries had purchased tickets. An estimated 30 percent of attendees came from the United States alone. Bad Bunny has said that he would not perform in the U.S. mainland — aside from the upcoming halftime show at the Super Bowl — because he feared his concerts would be targets for President Trump’s immigration raids.

“I respect it,” said Jocelyn Baltazar, 29, a Mexican American who came from California with her boyfriend, who doesn’t speak Spanish but said he enjoyed the music’s vibe. “I would rather come see him out here,” she added.

Ms. Baltazar said it was also a good opportunity to visit Mexico City for the first time. A group of American college students visiting from Utah felt the same.

“I went to school with a lot of Mexicans and they loved Bad Bunny and so that was kind of like my first introduction. I just loved it,” said Callum Yocum, 22. “Listening to Bad Bunny helped me learn Spanish.”

Bad Bunny’s Mexico City concerts are not only a major cultural event, but also a financial one. The Mexico City Chamber of Commerce estimated that the performances would bring in about $180 million from ticket sales, food, drinks and hotel stays. Several dozen vendors outside the stadium were selling Bad Bunny-themed shirts, hats, mugs, pens, notebooks and towels until the wee hours one morning.

Brandon Rodríguez and Luis Guerrero, both engineering students, flew in from Monterrey, Mexico, for the Dec. 12 concert. Many months ago, they said, they had gotten tickets for $67 each.

But they said they were given four tickets as gifts for a second concert after a member of Bad Bunny’s team noticed them waiting all day outside the artist’s hotel in Mexico City.

Standing outside the stadium on Monday afternoon with their suitcases, they said they had run out of money to rent a place to stay that night. But then they sold the two extra tickets for $333 each. The earnings helped them rent a room.

“I started crying when they gave me the tickets,” Mr. Guerrero, 19, said. “I called my parents and said, ‘I’m going to stay longer.’ They clearly scolded me, but I told them I couldn’t leave.”

Before entering the stadium, Karen Varela, 28, stopped to change her shoes. She and her boyfriend, both dentists, had taken the day off.

But in order to enjoy the concert, Ms. Varela, who is 5 foot 2, switched her footwear to red six-inch heels. “My cousin came on Friday — she is the same height — and couldn’t see a thing,” she said. “And I was like, ‘No, that’s not happening to me.’”

Not everyone could get a ticket. The shows sold out within hours. So more than 150 fans gathered near the stadium to listen, sing, dance and cry.

Inside the stadium near the main stage was Delia Ferreiras, 38, who manages hotels and was visiting from her native Dominican Republic. Although Bad Bunny performed in nearby Puerto Rico and twice in her own country last month, she said it was easier to get tickets to the Mexico City shows.

The global attraction of his tour, she said, shows “the reach we have as Latinos.” She said she identified with the Caribbean culture — the lingo, history and traditions, like the one-story pink house Bad Bunny uses as a second stage — in his work.

But he also played to the home crowd.

At the show on Monday, Bad Bunny’s band blended a traditional Mexican song with one of his, he wore a scarf from the Mexican national soccer team, and his surprise special guest was Grupo Frontera, a popular band from the U.S.-Mexico border.

Mr. Cruz Reyes, who had camped out, said he had barely slept the two days before the concert on Tuesday. The early morning dew soaked his tent, and he called the cold “unbearable.”

But minutes before the show began, he said it was “of course” all worth it.

James Wagner covers news and culture in Latin America for The Times. He is based in Mexico City.

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