The 10 Biggest Concerts in the World

New Year’s Eve fireworks shows already drew major crowds to the location, but adding a legendary rock star to the mix turned out to be a record-setting combination.

Much to everyone’s surprise, the New Year’s Eve concert drew out more than 4.2 million attendees, making it officially the largest concert of all time!

It even earned a spot in the Guinness World Records.

Despite the inherent stage fright putting on the world’s largest concert might entail, Rod Stewart, put on one heck of a performance that left the quite-literal masses in a frenzy.

It will forever go down as one of the best and largest musical performances of all time.

If you’re curious what 4.2 million people looks like, check out this video footage from Copacabana Beach on New Year’s Eve, 1994.

2. Jean Michel Jarre at State University of Moscow (1997) – 3.5 million attendees

State University of Moscow

To celebrate the momentous occasion, they needed a performance that would be just as momentous, and they found just the guy.

Jean Michel Jarre is a French pioneer in electronic music and, by that time, was well-renown for his incredible stage performances with full orchestras, lasers, fireworks, and light shows.

Even though Russia was still wary of outside visitors at the time, the mayor of Moscow reached out to Jarre to see if he was available.

Jarre had just finished up his Oxygene Tour and agreed to put on the performance of a lifetime.

On September 6th, 1997, more than 3.5 million people came to the State University of Russia to watch and listen to Jean Michel Jarre’s electrifying performance.

The show featured everything you’d expect from the master composer, including laser shows, fireworks, and even a direct satellite link with the Russian Space Station during the concert!

If you’re wondering what kind of show would attract such an incredible crowd, check out this video from the Moscow TV Broadcast, and you’ll see exactly what made this show so spectacular.

Of course, this wasn’t Jean Michel Jarre’s first run-in with million-plus person shows.

In fact, he has broken the “largest concert” record several times over his incredible career.

Out of the X concerts on this list, four are his!

3. Jorge Ben Jor at Copacabana Beach (1993) – 3 million attendees

Just one year before Rod Stewart’s record-setting performance, another musician set the record for the largest open-air concert in the exact same location.

This time, it was Jorge Ben Jor. Jorge Ben Jor is a Brazilian pop singer who mixes funk, rock, samba, and bossa nova to create uniquely Brazilian pieces that speak of the struggles of the country and the Brazilian way of life — often in humorous or satiric ways.

He’s been a major part of several musical movements in Brazil since the 1960s.

In 1993, Jorge Ben Jor was booked to play the New Year’s Eve show at the iconic Copacabana Beach.

The location was already a major tourist (and local) destination for the holiday, and city officials were hoping that hiring a major act would help draw in more tourists.

On New Year’s Eve, 1993, more than 3 million people crowded the Rio De Janeiro beaches to hear Jorge Ben Jor play his set.

This was the first concert to ever break the 3 million attendee mark, and only a handful have beaten it ever since.

4. Jean Michel Jarre at La Défense (1990) – 2.5 million attendees

The brilliant mind of Jean Michel Jarre is at it again.

This time, it was in Paris, France in 1990.

Four years before his record-setting performance at the State University of Moscow, Jean Michel Jarre was getting ready to perform in his native France for the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, also known as Bastille Day. Again, a moment so historic needs a historic performance, and that’s exactly what he did.

Jarre’s free public concert on July 14th, 1990 featured a pyramidic stage designed specifically to fit in front of La Défense right between the Parisian skyline.

In typical Jarre fashion, the stage and surrounding skyscrapers were constantly lit up with lights, lasers, special effects, and around 65 tons of fireworks as electronic music filled the entire city.

Oh yeah, and there were definitely giant metal puppets walking around during the entire two-hour performance!

This incredible spectacle drew in crowds from all over the city and surrounding areas.

Estimates put attendance at around 2.5 million people, which was a world record at the time!

Since this is definitely one of those performances you have to see to believe, check out this video of the full concert.

But as mentioned before, this wasn’t Jean Michel Jarre’s first run-in with record-setting performances.

5. Monsters of Rock (1991) – 1.6 million attendees

Rock and roll has always been a unifying force, and on September 28, 1991, several world events collided to create one of the greatest rock concerts in the history of music.

The Monsters of Rock music festival was a yearly hard rock festival that got all the best heavy rock bands in the world together to play one epic concert.

The festivals first started in England in 1980 and eventually spread to other cities around the world, including the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and the United States.

After a few years of several individual festivals around the world, the various Monsters of Rock festivals came together for one mega concert in the Soviet Union in 1991.

The Soviet Union was struggling to maintain control of the country and tried to postpone the event several times.

But if there’s one thing you know about hard rock fans, it’s not easy to stop them.

The festival commenced on September 28, 1991, at the Tushino Airfield just outside of Moscow.

Headliners AC/DC, Metallica, Pantera, The Black Crowes, and E.S.T. played to an incredible crowd of 1.6 million fans — many of whom were angry locals who needed to let off some serious steam because of the political unrest.

All the rage and emotion on the airfield that day, coupled with a few legendary rock bands, made for one incredible performance the world will never forget.

Although it’s not quite as good as being there in person, check out this video of the full-length 1991 Monsters of Rock performance (and try to hold back the goosebumps).

Just three months after the concert, the Soviet Union fell.

6. Love Parade Festival (2008) – 1.6 million attendees

Various – Moby, Anja Schneider, Armin van Buuren, Audion, Carl Craig, DJ Hell, Dubfire, and more

The Love Parade is a major electronic music festival that takes place in Germany every year starting in 1989.

In 2008, the Love Parade reached its attendance peak.

The 2008 Love Parade took place in Dortmund, Germany on a closed-down highway.

Because of the venue location, the motto for this year’s festival was the Highway of Love.

The festival was actually a weekend-long parade with dozens of artists, vendors, and parties throughout the area, drawing in an incredible 1.6 million people.

Almost every artist at the Love Parade performs electronic music.

The 2008 artist list included some of the top electronic artists in the world:

Alex M.O.R.P.H. Anja Schneider

Armin van Buuren

Although there were dozens of different concerts going on simultaneously over the weekend, 1.6 million attendees still makes it one of the largest concerts ever.

And while it might not earn the top spot as the biggest concert of all time, the 2008 Love Parade does hold the world record for the largest parade in history.

Want to get a taste of what these festivities felt like?

Check out this video highlighting the events from the incredible 2008 Love Parade.

7. Live 8 Philadelphia (2005) – 1.5 million attendees

Philadelphia, PA, United States

Various – Kanye West, The Black Eyed Peas, Dave Matthews Band, Will Smith, Bon Jovi, Destiny’s Child, Toby Keith, Alicia Keys, Linkin Park, Def Leppard, Sarah McLachlan, Maroon 5, Keith Urban, Rob Thomas, Stevie Wonder, and more

Live 8 was a series of worldwide benefit concerts following the 2005 G8 conference summit.

It was designed to raise awareness for the fight against poverty around the world.

As an added bonus, it was also the 20th anniversary of the legendary 1985 Live Aid performance.

To follow in Live Aid’s footsteps, the 2005 Live 8 concert series brought in dozens of music superstars from all over the world to play concerts simultaneously throughout the day.

The only venue to participate in the United States was the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Live 8 Philly (as it has become known) attracted tons of fan attention because of the incredible lineup set to perform over an incredible eight hours.

Because of the incredible acts, the Live 8 Philadelphia concert drew in more than 1.5 million fans that stretched down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway for over a mile — and that doesn’t even count the millions tuning in on their TVs around the world.

Since it was a world televised event, there are tons of videos available online of the various performances.

Check out this video of Keith Urban rocking the stage at Live 8 Philly.

8. The Rolling Stones at Copacabana Beach (2006) – 1.5 million attendees

Copacabana Beach

In 2006, the Rolling Stones were off on their Bigger Bang world tour to promote their 24th studio album of the same name — which ended up being their last album with Charlie Watts on drums.

You’d think after 44 years of playing together (at the time), there’s no way they could make even more of a bang than they already had.

On February 18, 2006, the Stones booked the legendary Copacabana Beach in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

You know, the venue that produced the most-attended concert of all time.

Mix a great venue with a great band, and you get a great turnout.

More than 1.5 million fans turned out to see Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and Charlie Watts take the stage and do what they’ve done best for over half a century.

You can watch the entire performance in this video and see why the Brazilian crowd just couldn’t get enough satisfaction from the Rolling Stones.

9. Jean Michel Jarre at Rendez-vous Houston (1986) – 1.3 million attendees

Houston, Texas, United States

The city of Houston, Texas was celebrating its 150th anniversary, and they needed a big performance to really showcase the city.

When you need a big performance, you turn to the one-and-only Jean Michel Jarre.

The concert was also supposed to celebrate the launch of the Challenger Space Shuttle launch, and NASA’s 25th anniversary, but after the shuttle exploded above the launch pad, it turned into a night of remembrance for those lost.

Ron McNair, an astronaut who died in the Challenger disaster and a personal friend of Jarre’s, was even supposed to play saxophone from space during the concert.

For this concert, Jean Michel Jarre had the entire city as his stage.

The event took place right in downtown Houston and was named the Rendez-vous Houston: A City in Concert.

Massive canvases were hung from many of the skyscrapers in the city which showed light and laser shows synchronized to the electronic music.

Spotlights and fireworks shot up all over the city as the entire skyline dazzled for this incredible performance.

How many times in history has an entire city been the stage for a concert?

An approximate 1.3 million people showed up for the incredible spectacle, which was a world record at the time.

Jarre even got his name in the Guinness Book of World Records.

In the video of the concert, you can see miles of traffic in both directions trying to get into Houston to see the show — and who could blame them!?

The event was broadcast all over the world, making Jean Michel Jarre a bonafide mega-concert legend.

Paz sin Fronteras II (2009) – 1.1 million attendees

While the governments of the South American countries were at war, the people of the countries were largely against the actions of their respective governments.

In 2009, musician Juanes organized a series of free outdoor concerts called Paz sin Fronteras, which translates to Peace without Borders, to promote a nonviolent message that all Latin and South American countries are brothers and should get along.

The first concert took place along the Colombian-Venezuela border and drew a crowd of around 300,000 people.

While that might be impressive, it was nothing compared to the major turnout for the second concert of the series, Paz sin Fronteras II.

Paz sin Fronteras II took place in Cuba in front of the Plaza de la Revolución.

It featured Juanes along with several other musicians from around South America and Latin America.

This free concert drew in an incredible 1.1 million people, which is about 10% of the entire population of Cuba!

The concert lasted a whopping 5.5 hours.

It was definitely a musical event on a scale that hasn’t been seen before or since on the little island of Cuba.

You can see the excitement of the massive concert in this video from the finale.

A third Paz sin Fronteras concert was planned for Caracas, Venezuela in 2013, but it never came to fruition.

The Beach Boys Independence Day Concert (1985) – 1 million attendees

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

The Beach Boys (with special guests Jimmy Page, Joan Jett, Christopher Cross, Keith Knudsen, and others)

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Philadelphia was one of the major sites of revolution during the American fight for independence back in 1776.

So it would only make sense that the city would go all-out in celebration of the 4th of July.

In 1985, the city of Philadelphia wanted to throw an epic 4th of July bash with a free concert filled with some of the biggest rock stars of the time, including Jimmy Page, Joan Jett, Christopher Cross, and others.

But what could be more American than the headlining band: The Beach Boys!

The city was feeling the “good vibrations” that Independence Day because more than 1 million people showed up for the incredible event, making it one of the biggest concerts of all time.

If you want to get a feel for the energy during the performance, check out this video of The Beach Boys playing Little Richard’s song “Lucille” with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page shredding several solos.

Jean Michel Jarre Bastille Day (1979) – 1 million attendees

Jean Michel Jarre

Even the masters of open-air mega-concerts have to start somewhere.

For Jean Michel Jarre, it started on July 14, 1979 in Paris, France.

Bastille Day is a big holiday for the people of France, and they needed a larger-than-life performance to celebrate the holiday in style.

Up to that point, Jean Michel Jarre had only played in a few rock bands throughout his teen, but he was about to set a new standard for open-air concerts.

The venue was in front of the Place de la Concorde in downtown Paris with plenty of room for tons of spectators.

When Jarre took the stage, it was just him and his synthesizers.

In typical fashion (for the first time), Jarre lit up the entire city with lasers, light shows, and fireworks, captivating the hoards of onlookers.

All in all, over 1 million people showed up to watch the incredible performance.

This was Jarre’s first open-air show and his first concert to break one million attendees.

Not only was it personally record-breaking for Jarre, but the performance also made its way into the Guinness World Records as the largest concert at the time.

The show was such an astounding success that it drew the attention of cities all over the world and made Jarre a concert-creation visionary to be reckoned with.

Whenever a city needed something incredible, they’d call Jarre.

He would go on to break the largest concert record three more times over the course of his career!

If you want to catch a glimpse of the show that made Jarre a legend, check out this video of the entire performance from 1979.

Antonello Venditti (2001) – 1 million attendees

European countries love their soccer.

The only thing they love more than soccer is watching their team win.

Naturally, everyone in Rome was ecstatic, and they needed to celebrate with a major live performance.

Antonello Venditti is an Italian singer/songwriter who became famous in the 1970s for his hard-hitting songs that touched on countless social themes.

Over the years, his popularity grew, and he became one of the biggest singers in all of Italy.

When A.S. Roma won their third championship, they naturally called Venditti to perform.

In 2001 at the Circus Maximus, Venditti performed to a rowdy crowd of more than a million A.S. Roma fans.

The concert was so big that it still holds the record for the busiest free concert to ever be held in Italy.

If you want to check out this energetic concert, here’s a clip from the performance.

The Black Eyed Peas at Copacabana Beach (2006) – 1 million attendees

1 million

The historic concert 1969 concert in Woodstock has inspired countless venues and musicians over the years, but one of the most successful variations of the iconic concert is perhaps the Pol’And’Rock festival — otherwise known as the Woodstock Festival Poland.

The Pol’And’Rock festival started in 1995 and has been a major annual event ever since.

Acts from around the world come together to put on dozens of incredible performances over the course of the festival.

In fact, the festival has an aggregate attendance of more than 750,000 people, making it one of the largest music festivals in the world.

In 2019, the Pol’And’Rock festival took “largest music festivals” to a new level.

With incredible headliners including Ziggy Marley and rock supergroup Prophets of Rage, around 1 million people showed up to enjoy the festivities.

Listen to Tom Morello and his friends in the Prophets of Rage shred through their set in this video from the 2019 concert.

Honorable Mention: Live Aid (1985) – 1.9 billion viewers

London, England and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Date

Number of attendees

Various — Queen, Sting, Phil Collins, U2, Dire Straits, David Bowie, The Who, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Joan Baez, Billy Ocean, Black Sabbath, Run-D.M.C., The Beach Boys, Santana, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Madonna, Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Hall & Oats, Bob Dylan, Mick Jaggar, and more

The World

While it might not officially count as one of the largest concerts of all time in terms of attendance (since most people were just tuning in on their TVs), it’d be difficult to have a list of legendary mega-concerts without mentioning Live Aid from 1985.

In 1984, millions of people were starving to death in Ethiopia due to what has been described as a “biblical famine in the 20th century.” Millions of people from all over the world worked together to raise aid and awareness for those impacted.

One of the biggest ideas was to throw a worldwide charity concert headlined by the biggest musicians around the world and have it broadcast simultaneously around the world from two stages in separate cities.

The two cities participating were London, England and Philadelphia, PA in the United States.

Major music superstars took the stage in both cities, and the concerts were streamed live all over the world.

Here are just a few of the artists involved in the 1985 Live Aid concert:

In Wembley Stadium in London, around 72,000 people showed up to hear the acts live.

While the combined 162,000 attendees is far from making a record, the 1.9 billion people watching live from their homes all over the world certainly would!

That’s right, 1.9 billion (with a B) was the estimated viewership for the Live Aid 1985 concert, which is around 40% of the entire Earth’s population!

If that’s not enough for at least an honorable mention on a list of the biggest concerts of all time, nothing is.

While there were countless legendary musicians, Live Aid was also the incredible reunion of Queen with Freddie Mercury and his show-stopping performance that has been dubbed “the greatest live gig of all time.” It was so good, they had to make a movie out of it!

Watch Queen take the stage like never before in this video from Live Aid 1985, and you’ll easily see why 1.9 billion people just had to tune in and see it for themselves!

Rod Stewart’s New Year’s Eve Concert at Copacabana Beach

Jean-Michel Jarre’s 850th Anniversary of Moscow Concert at State University of Moscow

Jorge Ben Jor’s New Year’s Eve Concert at Copacabana Beach

Jean-Michel Jarre’s Bastille Day concert at La Défense

Monsters of Rock concert at Tushino Airfield (AC/DC, Pantera, Metallica, The Black Crowes, E.S.T.)

Love Parade Festival at Bundesstraße 1 highway

Live 8 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Rolling Stones, A Bigger Bang Tour at Copacabana Beach

Jean-Michel Jarre’s Rendez-vous Houston in Downtown Houston

Paz Sin Fronteras II at Plaza de la Revolución

The Beach Boys Independence Day concert at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Jean-Michel Jarre’s Bastille Day at Place de la Concorde

Antonello Venditti, AS Roma’s 3rd Serie A victory at Circus Maximus

The Black Eyed Peas New Year’s Eve concert at Copacabana Beach

Million-Plus Mega-Shows:

Gathering a million people in one place almost seems like an impossible task, but music is the great unifier.

There have been several performances throughout history to achieve a million or more attendees, making them the largest concerts of all time.

Will any venue be able to break Rod Stewart’s 4.2 million attendees?

Only time will tell!

SchiebelMy name is Chris and I’ve had a passion for music and guitars for as long as I can remember.

I started this website with some of my friends who are musicians, music teachers, gear heads, and music enthusiasts so we could provide high-quality guitar and music-related content.

I’ve been playing guitar since I was 13 years old and am an avid collector.

Amps, pedals, guitars, bass, drums, microphones, studio, and recording gear, I love it all.

A true passion of mine, I’ve designed, built, and repaired a wide range of guitar amps and electronics.

But going to a live event is a whole new experience.

And as far as most concert lovers are concerned, their motto is ‘the bigger, the better.’

So as a fellow music lover, do you want to know which are the biggest concerts ever?

Paid Concerts

Frank Sinatra Live

On January 26, 1980, the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro hosted a massive crowd of 175,000 people.

The occasion was Frank Sinatra’s live concert.

Perhaps the most influential musician of the 20th century, Sinatra doesn’t need any introduction.

With 150 million records sold, he is one of the top 30 best-selling artists of all time.

The event broke all previous records and made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest (paid) attendance ever recorded for a single artist.

Break Every Rule World Tour

Date: 16 January 1988

The title of the highest-attended female solo concert goes to Tina Turner’s Break Every Rule World Tour, which was witnessed by 180,000 fans at the famous Maracana stadium.

It was the biggest music concert of the 20th century.

Tina Turner, often referred to as the queen of rock n roll, came into the limelight in the 1960s with the success of Ike & Tina Turner Revue.

She is one of the best-selling musicians, with more than 200 million records sold worldwide.

The Paul McCartney World Tour

The Maracana Stadium during the concert | Image Courtesy: paulmccartney.com

Location: Maracana Stadium, Rio

Date: 20-21 April 1990

In 1990, during his first major tour in more than a decade, bass-legend Paul McCarthy performed in front of a record-breaking crowd of about 184,000 in Maracana Stadium.

As it stands, it is the second-highest attendance at the stadium for a music event.

The tour was later documented in albums Tripping the Live Fantastic and concert movie named Get Back.

Glay members at the MTV Video Music Awards in Japan (2014) | Image Courtesy: [email protected]/Flickr

Glay is Japan’s one of the best-selling rock bands that work in both rock and pop genres.

In 1999, the band launched Glay Expo, an occasional concert which unlike conventional open-air concerts, is more lavish and attracts a larger audience.

The concert attracted 200,000 people at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba, Japan.

It was the highest-attended concert (single act) at that time.

Bijelo Dugme with Zuzi Zu (Zumreta Midžić) in 1987 during a concert in Belgrade

Date: 28th June 2005

Bijelo Dugme (White Button) was perhaps the most famous rock band that existed in the former Yugoslavia.

In 1989, after creating many memorable titles for more than a decade, the band was disintegrated and seized to exist.

The members, however, reunited in 2005 for live concerts in Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Zagreb (Croatia) and Belgrade (Serbia).

Their event in Belgrade attracted more than 250,000 people, while the ticket sales were reported to be around 220,000.

Location: Parco Ferrari, Modena, Italy

Vasco Rossi, nicknamed II Blasco, is one of the most popular Italian rock singers, with more than 35 million copies of songs sold.

Rossi’s concerts are mostly sold-out, though he has never performed outside Europe.

In April 2016, Vasco Rossi announced his plans to organize a concert in Modena, the city from where he started his musical journey.

His announcement created a media frenzy state in the country.

About 225,000 tickets to the concert were sold and more than 5.5 million audiences watched the event on their television sets.

It remains the highest-attended single artist music event to date.

Free Concerts

6. The Beach Boys Independence Day Concert

The Beach Boys reunion in 2012 | Image Courtesy: Louise Palanker

Arguably the most influential rock band of the ’60s and ’70s, the legendary Beach Boys performed in front of a massive independence day crowd in 1985.

The venue was the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Later that day, the band pulled another gig in Washington, D.C, in front of 750,000 spectators.

The Beach Boys, around that time, were embroiled in a minor political fix.

In a surprising turn of events, the then U.S Secretary of Interior James Watt banned them from performing at Washington D.C’s National Mall in 1983 by accusing them of attracting “the wrong element.” The ban was lifted by President Ronald Reagan the next year.

5. Live 8 Philadelphia

Location: Philadelphia Museum of Art

Date: 2nd July 2005

Live 8 Philadelphia, also known as “Live 8 USA,” was a free concert in which at least 800,000 people turned up to enjoy some of the most famous bands and artists in the world.

Among the performers, at Live 8 Philadelphia were popular bands, including Linkin Park and Maroon 5, as well as solo artists like Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, Keith Urban, and Toby Keith.

There has been a dispute regarding the total number of attendees at the concert.

According to the organizers, over 1 million people were at the event.

But as per non-organizer sources, this number was somewhere between 600,000 and 1.5 million.

4. The Rolling Stone Concert

Date: 18th Feb 2006

Legendary British band, The Rolling Stone performed at Rio de Janeiro’s famous Copacabana beach in 2006 at a free concert.

As expected, about one and a half million music lovers gathered to seize this rare opportunity.

The concert was part of the band’s ‘A Bigger Bang’ world tour to promote their new album of the same name.

It is currently the second-highest-grossing world tour by any band, with more than $550 million in revenue.

Three days after the event, Irish band U2 performed in Sao Paulo, a few hundred kilometers away from Rio.

“They’re still the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world, better by far than U2 or Oasis or Franz Ferdinand or any other pretenders,” said a fan in an interview with The New York Times.

At the event, Mick Jagger won the hearts of Brazilian fans before their performance by addressing them mostly in Portuguese.

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3. AC/DC, Metallica Concert

Location: Tushino Airfield, Moscow

In 1991, a few months before the dissolution of the USSR, more than a million Russians gathered together in Tushino Airfield (Moscow) to witness the first-ever open-air concert by western rock bands in the country.

It was part of the annual Monsters of Rock music festival.

While popular bands like Pantera, The Black Crowes, and E.S.T electrified the crowd, AC/DC and Metallica took things to the stratosphere.

According to unofficial estimates, about 1.5 million people attended the concert.

However, officially this number is between 800,000 to 1 million.

2. Jean-Michel Jarre Concert

Location: State University of Moscow

Date: 6th September 1997

Total Attendance: 3.5 million

In 1997, Jean-Michel Jarre was signed by Moscow’s Mayor for a live performance to commemorate the 850th anniversary of the city.

Surpassing every expectation, about 3.5 million audiences turned up at the State University of Moscow to witness the music extravaganza.

It was not the first time the French-born megastar has attracted such a crowd.

His first Paris concert in 1979 attracted more than 1 million spectators, setting a new world record.

Jarre broke his record twice.

As a surprise to the Russian audience, live coverage of the Russian space station Mir was shown during the concert.

1. Rod Stewart New Year’s Eve Concert

Rod Stewart in 1976, during his concert in Oslo, Noway

Location: Copacabana Beach, Rio

Date: 31st December 1994

Total Attendance: 3.5 million-4.2 million

The title of the highest-attended concert goes to the Rod Stewart rock concert held on New Year’s Eve in 1994.

Sir Rodrick David Stewart is a British singer who, with over 140 million records sold, is one of the best-selling musicians in the world.

In the same year, David Stewart was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (solo) alongside Elton John, John Lennon, and Bob Marley.

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The concert made it to the Guinness World Record as the world’s largest free rock concert, with more than 4 million attendees.

However, a large number of spectators had turned up solely for the midnight fireworks.