Colombian singer Shakira performs during her sold out Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour at Valley Children’s Stadium, August 7, 2025 in Fresno.
By almost any measure, Shakira topped Fresno entertainment in 2025.
The global pop star certainly had the most hype, following the announcement that her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran tour would play at Valley Children’s Stadium in August.
It was promised as an experience unlike anything seen in Central Valley. And people showed up, despite the unproven concert venue and Fresno’s summer heat.
While there wasn’t an immediate rush for tickets (in the way of 2016 Garth Brooks or Paul McCartney) the concert did sell out in the hours before showtime. There were 27,835 tickets sold with prices ranging from $49.50 to $229.50, according to trade publication Pollstar.
Prices were higher for some on the secondary market.
The concert brought in more than $2.7 million, according to Pollstar data, and another $2.1 million in economic impact for the county, though Fresno State’s stake was considerably less, at $400,000, according to the university.
What else was big in Fresno in 2025, according to Pollstar?
Even if Shakira did have the largest single-night draw for the year by nearly 10,000 tickets, she wasn’t the only performer to come through Fresno in 2025 and a look at box office data reported to Poll Star reveals some key takeaways about what Fresnans were into in 2025.
* Latin music ruled the year.
Save Mart Center reported five events at 100% capacity for 2025, according to Pollstar data shared with The Bee.
Of those, three were Latin artists. Puerto Rican singer Rauw Alejandro sold just under 10,000 tickets (worth $1.82 million, gross) in April. That same week, Tito Double P, a singer from Mexico, sold more than 11,500 tickets.
In October, Junior H sold 11,131 tickets on a return trip to the area. That show made $1.65 million in gross sales. The singer also had sold-out performances in 2023 (10,362 tickets) and 2024 (10,842), according to Pollstar.
The other two capacity events were Christian musical Phil Wickham’s Summer Worship Nights tour in August, which sold more than 13,000 tickets, and county singer Kane Brown, who sold more than 10,500 tickets for his performance in March. The rock bands Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace also had one of the arena’s largest ticket draws for the year. Thought it wasn’t listed at 100% capacity, it sold just under 10,000 tickets.
* Monster truck are a consistent draw.
In terms of the sheer number of butts in seats, Monster Jam was one of the biggest draws at the Save Mart Center for the year. The monster truck competition/exhibition sold nearly 35,000 tickets between a pair of weekend tour stops in March and August.
And that’s actually down from previous years. In 2023, for example, it sold nearly 45,000 tickets over two weekends, according to Pollstar data.
* Fresno is becoming a viable market for touring comics, with nearly a dozen touring comics are already booked for 2026 at the Save Mart Center and Warnors, Tower and Saroyan theaters.
Looking at 2025, Save Mart Center hosted two arena-level comics. Matt Rife, whose popularity crashed Ticketmaster’s website, was 100 seats shy of capacity. He sold just over 10,000 seats for his Stay Golden tour in April, according to Pollstar.
Gabriel Iglesias, a longtime Fresno favorite, sold more than 6,000 seats in February.
Saroyan Theatre had several comics push its 2,268-seat capacity, including Leanne Morgan, Nurse John and Felipe Esparza.
Other notable events in Fresno in 2025
Of course, Pollstar doesn’t track non-ticketed or reoccurring events, and even then, is reliant on the artists and venues that choose to report their box office data. So while the reporting offers some interesting data points (especially for the city’s best-known venues) it’s small window into Fresno’s full entertainment landscape.
For instance, Pollstar had data on the Dog Daze music festival at Save Mart Center in May (it sold more than 4,000 tickets and grossed some $68,000). But it didn’t get reporting when the festival brought the Chainsmokers to Chukchansi Park in September.
Likewise, thousands of people were expected at Clovis’ Harlan Ranch to see Luke Bryan’s Farm tour in May. Though attendance numbers were not publicly released, the country star sold 20,000 tickets for his performance at Atwater’s Castle Airport day before. Similar numbers were reported for the Harlan Ranch performance, though it’s not clear if that was an official tally.
The Bee did get stats from the stadium on its two best-known events, Tequila Fest and Taco Truck Throwdown.
The Ludacris-headlined Tequila Fest drew more than 8,000 people, while the E-40 and the S.O.S Band drew nearly 11,000 people for the 14th annual throwdown.
And just this December, Warnors Theatre had a recording-breaking run with comedian Rene Vaca. After the initial performance sold out, the 2,100-seat theater added a second show by demand, according to executive director Nicole Owens.
In April, English crooner Morrissey performed to a capacity crowd at the theater on a short-run spring tour.
In all, the theater complex (which also includes Frank’s Place and Star Palace) tripled its bookings for 2025 and should see more increases in 2026 thanks to a new partnership with entertainment company Ineffable Live.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.fresnobee.com ’
