Arena Tours Take Centre Stage at Billboard Latin Music Week
Large indoor venues were the focus of a panel at Billboard Latin Music Week, the industry conference held in Miami Beach, on Wednesday, October 21. The session, called "The Spanish-Speaking Touring Corridor: How Arenas Are Powering the Global Growth of Latin Music," looked at how tours move between Latin America, Spain and the United States.
The panel was presented by Movistar Arena Madrid and the Association of Spanish-Speaking Entertainment Arenas. It was moderated by Paz Aparicio, director of Movistar Arena Madrid. Billboard reported that three other speakers joined the discussion: Melanie García Vélez, booking manager at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico; Pascual Egea, president of the Association of Music Promoters of Spain (APM); and Felipe Pimiento, an artist manager and founder of PIMIENTO ENTERTAINMENT.
García Vélez pointed to Bad Bunny's 2025 residency at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot, a run of 31 dates, which she called a groundbreaking milestone for Latin music. A residency is a series of shows booked in one venue over a set period, so artists stay put while fans travel to them.
Arenas sit between small clubs and stadiums. They usually hold several thousand people, which makes them a practical middle step for artists building a live audience across borders. Promoters, the companies that book shows and sell tickets, need venues in each market to line up dates along a route. That is why the panel focused on connections between cities, not single shows.
For fans, the practical side is simple. A tour that works across several countries can bring a show closer to home, and it can give a venue a steady run of events. For the people who work those shows, from stagehands to ticket staff, the route determines how many weeks of work come with each tour.
The conference ran from October 19 to 22 at the Faena Forum in Miami Beach. The following evening, Thursday, October 22, the 2026 Billboard Latin Music Awards were held at the James L. Knight Center in Miami, starting at 8 p.m. and hosted by Carmen Villalobos and Javier Poza, according to NBC.
