This Saturday, outside the Metropolitan stadium in Madrid, there was a little bit of everything: faithful who know every comma of every Bad Bunny song and curious people who promise to learn them soon. Between each other, a wide range of grays and a great Latin music party that, led by the Puerto Rican artist, has landed this week in the capital to stay for the next 10 days, until June 15.
The fever for the singer has been such that it has even forced us to invent a new location for the concert: F, the one from outside, that of precarious youth, that of those who did the math and realized that, with a salary that among those of their generation is around 1,300 euros on average (according to the National Institute of Statistics in 2025) and rents that easily go above 800 euros (according to the web portal Idealistic), it was not possible to pay the more than 100 euros that the tickets cost. But many of those who did not get a ticket even by selling a kidney on Ticketmaster were not willing to miss the most important social event since there was FOMO, Fear Of Missing Out, the fear of missing the event that everyone talks about, of not being where you need to be.
While inside the Riyadh Air Metropolitano 50,000 people were looking for their seats around 7:00 p.m. like someone entering the temple of reggaeton, on the outskirts, hundreds of young people were putting on their own parallel concert in the parking lot of the venue, in the San Blas neighborhood of Madrid. Free, with more sweat and with the warmer beer, but the same desire accumulated since Thursday, when the artist arrived in the city and the Rosewood Villa Magna hotel became an improvised camp, a place for collective anxiety. Some took shifts from early in the morning in the hope of crossing paths with Bad Bunny, even for a few seconds. Others decided to sleep on Friday night around the Metropolitano. All sacrifice is little in this religion.
But even in the hell of FOMO there are social classes. The division is clear: those who decided to settle on the terrace of Rita’s, near gate 16, paying six euros for a beer with side views of the stadium, and those in the parking lot, the reggaeton workers’ stands, who arrive with bags from the Día supermarket and a portable speaker, willing to “stay outside like the poor,” as Daniel Dobleu, a 33-year-old Colombian, wrote in his friends’ WhatsApp group. Precisely in Madrid, a city where one in every seven inhabitants was born on the other side of the pond. Not for nothing is it the city where Bad Bunny performs with the most tour dates I should have taken more photos: 10 concerts in a row.
“We were left without a ticket, but we were anxious about staying at home watching Instagram stories,” says Dobleu, who was handing out plastic cups so that no one would lack something to hydrate themselves, laughing. “We saw what happened in Barcelona and we thought we would do the same.” As the hours go by, the Latin festival makes its way: couples dancing stuck between poorly parked cars, girls applying makeup with the front camera of their cell phones and entire groups singing while looking at the sky, as if Bad Bunny could appear from the heights to bless them. It’s not the first time it happens. Taylor Swift already had hundreds of fans singing from the surroundings at the Bernabéu as if it were Lourdes and they were pop pilgrims. But Bad Bunny has his own liturgy, one based on dancing, shouting and sweating in the middle of the stifling heat.
On the other side of reality, Elena Fuste, 26, waits with the tickets she bought just a year ago, the same day they went on sale. He acquired two thinking about reselling one, but along the way he met Juan Díez, 35 years old. Some things led to others and now they plan together every last detail of their outfits, inspired by the song cute little eyes. They already have several TikToks prepared for the night because part of the experience is telling it.
Around him, dozens of attendees wear Adidas t-shirts from the special collection in Madrid, flags of different Latin American countries, straw hats like those on the Bad Bunny album, and fans with the artist’s face. At 33 degrees, every shadow is a treasure. Everyone accumulates at least four hours of waiting under the punishing sun. Among them, Nuria Agustín, 27, and her friend Alma Cátala, 25, assure that they know all the songs and that they have come with only one idea: to twerk.
While those inside go through security checks, those outside open coolers. The former show digital tickets like someone showing a passport to paradise; Those outside use their experience and display JBL speakers, bags of ice and sandwiches wrapped in aluminum foil as in an urban pilgrimage.
But the party won’t end when the concert ends. The Fitz nightclub will celebrate the after official of each of the nights with surprise performances, while the La Gran Cucaracha party will temporarily abandon its Wednesdays at the Bar del Internacional to land in Florida Park with afternoons of salsa, DJs and live groups. In the Sala Sol there will be a party named When you were twerking; the Shoko nightclub will organize the Casa Puerto Rico in tribute to the singer; while Uñas Chung Lee will have several Bad Bunny themed nights and room 365 has been completely decorated with colors, music and Caribbean cuisine. It’s not that Bad Bunny has gone to Madrid: Madrid has gone to Bad Bunny. Welcome to the city where perreo makes everyone equal.