What Was the Largest Concert Ever? 7 Events by Crowd Size
Next to sporting events like the Olympics, stadium music concerts are some of the biggest live events on Earth. They can attract thousands — sometimes even millions — music fans to see the talent on display. Read on to learn about the largest concert ever, as well as some of the other most-attended concerts in history.
Current World Record: Jean Michel Jarre in Moscow (3.5 million)
Unlike most of the rock bands on this list, Jean Michel Jarre is a French composer who made a name for himself on keyboard and became an instrumental part of the electronic and techno music scenes in the late 70's and 1980's.
Over the decades, Jarre has become one of the most popular live acts in Europe, hosting multiple shows in Paris, France, and Houston, Texas, which brought in more than a million attendees each.
His largest concert ever took place at the Moscow State University, Russia, in 1997. With an estimated attendance of 3.5 million people, the event quickly matched the record for the largest open-air concert ever performed.
Only our next entry has come anywhere close to matching that figure. Jean Michel Jarre remained the only artist to continuously hold record-breaking concerts through the 20th century.
2. Rod Stewart at Copacabana Beach (3.5 Million)
On New Year's Eve 1993, Rod Stewart traveled to Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and played to the biggest concert that country had ever seen. Official estimates for the Rod Stewart show are at 3.5 million attendees, with most of them sprawled across the beach hundreds of feet away from the stage.
This number roughly matches Jean Michel Jarre's 1997 record for the largest ticketed concert ever. With such massive crowd sizes and close margins, it's hard to say which of these is truly the largest concert ever, although some Rod Stewart fans may argue that this Copacabana Beach show is actually the one more deserving of the No. 1 spot.
3. Monsters of Rock Concert in Moscow (1.6 Million)
Monsters of Rock was a music festival through the '80s and '90s which had several concerts put on at various cities throughout the world, but the biggest concert it ever put on was featured at Tushino Airfield in Moscow, Russia. This festival can be considered historically significant because it was put on just after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
It also featured some of the biggest rock bands of the time, including AC/DC, Motley Crue, The Black Crowes, Pantera and Metallica. With the release of The Black Album that same year, Metallica were on their way to superstardom, further evidenced by the massive crowd they pulled in Moscow.
4. Love Parade 2008 (1.6 Million)
Throughout the 90's and 2000's Love Parade was Germany's largest electronic dance music festival and probably the most popular throughout all of Europe. It reached its peak in 2008 when the Dortmund, Germany, event brought in a reported 1.6 million dance fans.
Nearly 80 DJs and bands were featured at Love Parade that year, with some big names among them being David Guetta, Digitalism, Moby, Underworld and Armin van Buuren.
5. The Rolling Stones at Copacabana Beach (1.5 Million)
Copacabana Beach in Rio has hosted not one, but two of the biggest concerts ever. In 2006, The Rolling Stones came to Rio and played for 1.5 million fans on the beach. This doesn't come close to the figure when Rod Stewart played, but it was the biggest Rolling Stones show ever and impressive in its own right.
6. Live 8 in Philadelphia (1.5 Million)
Live 8 was a massive, multicity festival with events taking place in London, Berlin, Moscow, Toronto and Philadelphia, with proceeds benefitting anti-poverty efforts in Africa. The largest of these shows was the one in Philly, which saw over a million people piling in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and spilling out into the adjacent streets.
The Philly show brought in massive acts like The Black Eyed Peas, Destiny's Child, Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Maroon 5, Stevie Wonder and Linkin Park with Jay-Z. With names like these on the list, it's almost no surprise that it became one of the biggest concerts ever.
Honorable Mention: The Largest Country Music Concert
George Strait recently put on a record-breaking show playing for fellow lone star natives at the Texas A&M Stadium. Over 110,000 people were in attendance, making it the biggest single-act concert in U.S. history (not counting multi-act festivals). This figure edges out a record set by the Grateful Dead in 1977, who brought in 107,000 fans.
Original article: What Was the Largest Concert Ever? 7 Events by Crowd Size
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