Plaza de Toros Monumental

The Plaza Monumental de Playas de Tijuana is the big concrete bullring at the far west end of the city, a block from the Pacific and a few steps from the border fence. Built for bullfighting in 1960 and still known across the line as the Bullring by the Sea, it is today Tijuana’s largest open-air concert venue, the place where Gloria Trevi, Grupo Frontera and Miguel Bosé play when they come through. It is also one of the most striking settings for a show anywhere on the border: the ocean on one side, Friendship Park and the wall on the other.

What’s there

The ring was inaugurated on June 26, 1960, with a bullfight featuring Alfonso Ramírez “El Calesero”, Rafael Rodríguez and Antonio del Olivar, and it went up fast: contractor Raymundo Muzquiz Ayala assembled it in about 90 days from prefabricated blocks cast in San Diego. Capacity is listed at 21,621, which is why local writers still rank it among the largest bullrings in the world. The layout is a classic radial bowl: the ruedo (the sand floor) becomes the floor or VIP area for concerts, the barreras are the ringside rows, and the tendidos, laterales and palcos climb behind them. Everything is open to the sky. Its concert history goes back to the ill-fated Tijuana Pop Festival of 1968, which promised the Animals and Iron Butterfly and delivered neither.

What to expect

Recent seasons have been almost all music. The 2026 calendar included a free Carín León show in March as part of a public “Territorios de Paz” festival, Miguel Bosé in May, Grupo Frontera at the end of May, a banda double bill with Los Alameños de la Sierra in June, Humbe in September, Gloria Trevi on October 10 and Fede Vigevani on November 14; boxing and cultural events fill other dates. Door times vary by promoter (7 p.m. for Humbe, 9:30 p.m. for Gloria Trevi), and the headliner goes on well after dark. The ring was built for the fiesta brava and hosted the big names for decades, but there have been no bullfights here in recent years; the 2026 bullfighting season that promoters announced for Tijuana belongs to a different ring, the Nuevo Toreo on the east side of the city. If a corrida is what you are after, check the listing carefully.

Prices and entry

Prices depend on the promoter and the section: floor and ringside cost the most, upper tendidos the least. For Gloria Trevi in October 2026, tickets started at MX$770 through Super Boletos; other 2026 shows have sold through Ticketon and Eticket. Buy only from the seller named on the official poster.

Getting there

Address: Av. del Pacífico 4, Sección Monumental, Playas de Tijuana. It is on the far west side of the city, roughly half an hour by car from the border or downtown and longer on show nights. Parking around the ring is limited and the surrounding streets fill up, so most people ride-hail in and expect a wait for a ride home. The Playas malecón, with its restaurants and bars, is a short walk away, and Friendship Park and the beach are next door.

Good to know

• It is outdoors and right on the ocean: evenings are cool and windy even in summer, so bring a jacket.
• Seats are concrete; a cushion or a folded sweater helps on long nights.
• Playas de Tijuana is a residential beach neighborhood with its own restaurants, so dinner before the show is easy to arrange nearby.
• In 2026 the state’s cultural-heritage council took up the question of protecting the building as a historic structure, a sign of how the city feels about it.

See our guides to Playas de Tijuana and the calendar for the next show at the Monumental.