¡Vamos A Vegas! Sin City Hosts Ultimate Fiesta With Latin Superstars, Sphere MMA, 50 Cent & Far More

As I exited the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas and made my way to the taxi line well past midnight, I came across an image above a cab that happens to be the city’s slogan: “What happens here, only happens here.”

It’s a slight alteration to the previous slogan, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” which inspired films like “The Hangover” and “What Happens in Vegas,” but a major change; one that rang true after spending Mexican Independence Day weekend in Sin City.

Hotels and shops may not have gone all out to celebrate the culture, but the people sure as hell did. On Las Vegas Boulevard a family trio of musicians played a song by Los Tucanes de Tijuana for tips as well as dozens of thousands of people (some of them standing out wearing Mexico national soccer team jerseys) flocked from destination to destination as they prepared to celebrate El Grito (“The Cry”) — a patriotic ceremony commemorating Father Miguel Hidalgo’s battle cry for independence in Dolores, Mexico, in 1810.

Municipalities celebrate El Grito in their own way, but in Mexico City, the biggest party is at the main square called El Zócalo. Martí Batres Guadarrama, the mayor of the city, stated that more than 400,000 people attended two days’ worth of civic events, which included a free show from Banda MS.

The gathering at El Zócalo is a traditional way to celebrate Mexican Independence, but, if you’re a fan of música Mexicana, it certainly isn’t the best. Come mid-September, Mexican artists, promoters, agents and fans know the biggest destination isn’t on their side of the border. It’s all about going al norte and securing one of the many venues throughout Las Vegas, especially the prime real estate on The Strip. It is estimated that about 100,000 visitors are in Las Vegas each day throughout the weekend.

“It’s a destination point,” Henry Cárdenas, president and CEO of Cárdenas Marketing Network, tells Pollstar. “Most of these people who come to Vegas, they come for a long weekend because there’s going to be about 12-14 concerts. So, they come prepared financially to have a great time, and not just to watch one show. They’re probably going to watch three to four shows. I think the Mexicans in Mexico know that if they want to spend a great weekend with great music, you go to Las Vegas. You’re going to have a lot of options.”

Some of those shows were offered by CMN, including three performances at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace by superstar Luis Miguel, whose tour was No. 2 on Pollstar’s Q3 Top Worldwide Artist Tour chart. Miguel’s global run, which began in the summer of 2023, has grossed more than $336 million, including his Sept. 15 show at The Colosseum at Caesars that sold out and grossed $1,546,007 off 4,308 tickets sold.

Mexican crossover singer Carin León, who graced the cover of Pollstar in July, was another hot ticket and one of the shows promoted by CMN and AEG Presents, competing that night with stars like Miguel and Alejandro Fernández. The star, hailing from Hermosillo, Sonora, was well aware of what he was up against, and he knew he had to over-deliver to not only win over the crowd but also ensure that they got their money’s worth. With reports that León’s Sept. 14 show at Michelob Ultra Arena lasted over three hours, including an appearance from regional Mexican band Grupo Frontera, it’s safe to say he succeeded.

“Carin is an intelligent artist. He knew of the competition that was there that weekend,” his manager, Jorge Juárez, says. “There was an impressive offering of concerts and most of them from Mexico, and Carin knew he had to make it a party, and so he did.”

Juárez acknowledged that Las Vegas is now the central location to celebrate El Grito, and that he and his artist plan to make it an annual visit.

“It was an incredible weekend,” he says. “It’s become like a classic that you can’t not play. I was talking with Carin that it is a classic event that we have to return to every year.”

No event, however, encapsulated the grandeur of Mexican Independence Day in Vegas more than Peso Pluma’s show at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 13. As the poster boy of the modern Mexican corridos movement, the Zapopan-born singer took his Live Nation-produced concert to another level with a stellar list of guests that included hip-hop star 50 Cent, dembow legend El Alfa, Puerto Rican reggaeton standout Chencho Corleone and, of course, Mexican urban artists Tito Doble P, Yasiel Nuñez and Chino Pacas.

Music luminaries weren’t the only ones present for the Peso Pluma concert. With UFC 306 taking place at Sphere (which became the highest-grossing single event in the venue’s history with $22 million), fighters Brandon Moreno and Tracy Cortez were present and grooving at T-Mobile Arena, intersecting both worlds of entertainment in a way that only a Mexican star could accomplish on such a weekend.

And Peso Pluma vowed to run it again in 2025, saying he would return to Vegas after exclaiming, “Viva corridos, viva Mexico, cabrones!”

His and León’s shows were only two of the four performances I witnessed that weekend. The first stop on Saturday night may have been the most gratifying with millennials and older crowds amped for the Dolby Live residency show from Los Bukis, an iconic Mexican band that has been in the business for nearly five decades. Even at their age, the fans were ready to party. Prior to the concert, a woman in her 50s got up and successfully started the wave to build up anticipation.

When the official countdown hit zero and the curtains were pulled to reveal the group, one could have confused the setting with that of a high school prom as dolled-up fans sprung up from their seats and danced with their partners wherever they could find space.

The Los Bukis show — which was the first-ever Spanish-language residency on the strip — was quite the sight, one that underscores the influence Latin music has on Vegas and the industry at large.

“It definitely opens the doors and broadens the boundaries of what we can do,” Sid Greenfeig, Live Nation’s senior vice president of concerts in Las Vegas, recently told Pollstar. “Latin music and Latin culture have become part of the mainstream in life and Vegas.”

That was evident throughout the weekend, with people from all over the U.S. and Mexico making the trek to catch at least one Vegas show. Even with all the competition from boxing, UFC and P!NK’s “Summer Carnival” stop at Allegiant Stadium, Live Nation still sold more than 80,000 tickets across its Latin music shows that weekend with offerings that not only included Los Bukis and Peso Pluma but also Fuerza Regida, Ana Bárbara, Banda MS, Alejandro Fernández and Gloria Trevi.

Like the slogan says: Only in Vegas.