Mexico City events this week

Where to go in Mexico City: events, concerts and shows worth your night

Mexico City is the largest Spanish-speaking city on earth, and its nights are on the same scale: an art nouveau palace that stages ballet and opera, a 10,000-seat auditorium on the Reforma, a stadium that hosts the biggest tours in Latin America, mariachi in a square that never sleeps, and a museum for every mood. Below is where to go in Mexico City for a night out, with addresses, and what tends to be on when.

Concerts and live music in Mexico City: from the Auditorio Nacional to Zinco

The Auditorio Nacional (Paseo de la Reforma 50, Polanco, auditorio.com.mx) is the city’s great concert hall, around 10,000 seats and a calendar of international pop, ballet, comedy and orchestras; the Lunario beside it takes the 1,000-capacity shows. The Teatro Metropólitan (Avenida Independencia 90, Centro), a 1940s art deco cinema, hosts mid-sized rock and pop tours, and the arena and stadium shows play the Palacio de los Deportes and the Estadio GNP Seguros, the former Foro Sol. Zinco Jazz Club (Motolinía 20, Centro) is a jazz cellar in a former bank vault, and Plaza Garibaldi is where the mariachis play every night of the year.

Mexico City nightlife: Roma, Condesa and Juárez

Roma Norte and Condesa, west of the centre, are where the bars and small clubs are: mezcalerías, rooftop terraces, and dance floors that fill after midnight along Álvaro Obregón and around Parque México. Juárez, just north, has the cocktail bars and the queer scene along Calle Amberes in the Zona Rosa. The Metro closes at midnight, so nights end by taxi or rideshare; both are cheap and everywhere.

Ballet, opera and theatre in Mexico City

The Palacio de Bellas Artes (Avenida Juárez s/n, Centro Histórico, palacio.inba.gob.mx) is the marble-and-glass landmark of the city, home to the National Symphony, the Compañía Nacional de Ópera and the Ballet Folklórico de México, whose whirl of regional dances plays on Wednesday evenings and Sundays. The theatre district along Avenida Insurgentes and the Centro Cultural del Bosque behind the Auditorio take the Spanish-language plays and musicals.

Museums and galleries in Mexico City for an evening

Museo Jumex (Boulevard Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 303, Polanco, fundacionjumex.org), a David Chipperfield building beside the silver Museo Soumaya, holds Latin America’s most important private contemporary collection. The Museo Tamayo (Paseo de la Reforma 51, Bosque de Chapultepec) stages the international contemporary shows in the park, next to the Museum of Anthropology. Most museums are free on Sundays and closed on Mondays; the Frida Kahlo house in Coyoacán needs a timed ticket weeks ahead.

Mexico City festivals and events by season

• Spring: the Vive Latino rock festival in March, and the Feria de las Culturas Amigas on the Zócalo in May.
• Summer: the Guelaguetza season of folk dance, the Ballet Folklórico’s summer runs, and Mexico City Pride in June, one of the world’s largest.
• Autumn: Corona Capital, the big international festival, in November; the Day of the Dead parade along the Reforma at the end of October; and Independence Day on the night of 15 September, with the Grito on the Zócalo.
• Winter: the Zócalo ice rink and Christmas lights in December, the Three Kings on 6 January, and the Zona Maco art fair in February.

Things to do in Mexico City tonight and this weekend

The listings above are the live version of all this: every concert, show, club night and exhibition on in Mexico City tonight, tomorrow and this weekend, with times, prices and tickets, updated every hour.