Stray Kids Launch STRAYCITY, a New Festival Built Entirely Around the Group, in Bogotá
Stray Kids are no longer just playing festivals — they’re headlining one built around them.
Today, September 9, 2026, the eight-member K-pop group kicks off STRAYCITY, a new festival concept created by JYP Entertainment and U.S. concert giant Live Nation, at Vive Claro Distrito Cultural in Bogotá, Colombia.
It’s the opening stop on a three-city Latin American run that will also take the group to Buenos Aires and Mexico City later this month, with a historic headlining slot at Rock in Rio in Brazil squeezed in between.
The concept marks a shift in how the group is being positioned on the live circuit.
Rather than simply booking festival slots alongside other acts, as they’ve done at events like Lollapalooza Chicago or Governors Ball, Stray Kids are now the entire premise of the show — the festival exists because they’re on the bill, not the other way around.
What Is STRAYCITY?
STRAYCITY is a purpose-built touring festival with Stray Kids as its permanent headliner, joined by a rotating supporting lineup of regional and JYP-affiliated acts at each stop. JYP’s multinational boy group NEXZ appears at every date, while each city adds its own local support acts.
In Bogotá, Stray Kids are joined by NEXZ along with Colombian artists Andrés Obregón and RENEE. In Buenos Aires, the bill shifts to NEXZ plus Argentine acts Bad Milk and Kei Linch. In Mexico City, the closing stop, NEXZ returns alongside Mexican artists K4OS and Cocho.
The structure has drawn some skepticism online, particularly from Korean fan communities on forums like theqoo, where users have questioned whether STRAYCITY fits the traditional definition of a festival at all, given that Stray Kids is effectively the only major draw at each stop.
It’s less a multi-headliner event in the mold of Coachella or Lollapalooza and more a branded touring show wrapped in festival packaging — high-production stadium concerts with a festival name, supporting undercards, and festival-style marketing.
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View Partner Offer External Sponsor • Opens in New WindowWhatever the framing, the ambition is clear. JYP Entertainment and Live Nation are betting that Stray Kids alone can anchor a full festival brand across an entire region, something no K-pop act has previously attempted on this scale in Latin America.
The Full Schedule: Three Cities, Five Shows
STRAYCITY’s inaugural run spans just over two weeks:
- Bogotá, Colombia — Wednesday, September 9, 2026, at Vive Claro Distrito Cultural (one show)
- Buenos Aires, Argentina — Monday and Tuesday, September 14–15, 2026 (two shows)
- Mexico City, Mexico — Friday and Saturday, September 25–26, 2026, at Estadio GNP Seguros (two shows)
That’s five total STRAYCITY performances across three countries between September 9 and September 26.
Notably, the schedule isn’t purely back-to-back — there’s roughly a five-day gap between the single Bogotá show and the two-night Buenos Aires stand, and about a ten-day gap before the Mexico City finale. That breathing room isn’t incidental: it’s built around Stray Kids’ Rock in Rio commitment.
The Rock in Rio Detour
Sandwiched between the Bogotá and Buenos Aires legs, Stray Kids headline Rock in Rio in Brazil, reportedly around September 11 — becoming the first K-pop act in the festival’s history to headline its main stage.
Rock in Rio has historically been topped by rock and pop institutions like Queen, Guns N’ Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Muse, making Stray Kids’ inclusion a genuine milestone for the genre’s continued crossover into legacy Western festival stages.
Combined with STRAYCITY, the stretch from September 9 to 26 effectively turns into a South American festival takeover for the group: four countries, two festival brands, and a Latin American fanbase that’s had an unusually busy year with the act.
Building on a Record-Breaking 2025
STRAYCITY doesn’t arrive out of nowhere — it’s a direct continuation of the momentum from Stray Kids’ 2025 “Dominate” world tour, which brought the group to five cities across Latin America over eight stadium shows.
That tour cemented the region as one of the group’s strongest international markets, setting up the case for a standalone festival built specifically for Latin American fans rather than a single-region leg of a larger world tour.
The group’s broader 2026 has also been a record-setting one. Their August release This & That extended Stray Kids’ streak on the Billboard 200, making them the first act in the chart’s history to debut at No. 1 with nine consecutive albums — a run that underscores just how much commercial weight JYP and Live Nation are betting the STRAYCITY brand on.
On the live side, Stray Kids have spent the past couple of years steadily climbing the festival hierarchy, headlining major stages including Lollapalooza Paris, I-Days Milano, British Summer Time Hyde Park in London, Lollapalooza Chicago, and Governors Ball in New York.
STRAYCITY is effectively the next logical step: instead of being one name on someone else’s festival poster, they now have a festival built entirely in their own name.
Ticket Prices Spark Backlash in Mexico
Not everything about the rollout has gone smoothly. Ahead of the Mexico City dates, fans erupted over ticket pricing for the Estadio GNP Seguros shows.
According to Ticketmaster México’s published pricing — required under Mexican consumer protection law — tickets ranged from roughly 1,300 to 11,500 pesos, with VIP packages topping out above 11,500 pesos and the venue split into 29 separate pricing zones.
Fans quickly pointed out inconsistencies, including different price ranges within what should be the same seating section, and organized complaints to Mexico’s federal consumer protection agency, Profeco, along with an online petition that gathered thousands of signatures.
Much of the frustration centered on comparisons to international pricing: fan accounts circulated claims that similar VIP packages elsewhere cost the equivalent of around 8,000 pesos, versus over 11,500 pesos in Mexico for what were described as the same benefits.
Some also noted that top-tier VIP packages didn’t include a soundcheck experience, a benefit fans expected at that price point.
Ticketmaster and promoter OCESA responded that pricing and benefit structures were set directly by the show’s production team and JYP Entertainment, rather than by the ticketing platform itself — a response that did little to quiet the criticism.
The pricing backlash hasn’t been confined to Mexico. Broader online discussion, including from South American STAY (the group’s official fandom name) communities and Korean fan forums, has flagged VIP pricing reportedly reaching the equivalent of roughly one million Korean won at some stops, along with criticism over assigned seating — an unusual choice for an event marketed as a festival, where general-admission or standing configurations are more typical.
What It Means for Stray Kids’ Trajectory
Controversy aside, STRAYCITY represents a notable evolution in how JYP Entertainment is packaging Stray Kids for international audiences.
Where most K-pop acts pursue global growth through world tours or festival guest slots, STRAYCITY effectively franchises the group’s brand into a self-contained festival product — one that can, in theory, be replicated in other regions if the Latin American launch performs well.
It also reflects how much Latin America specifically has become a priority market for the group, following the scale of the 2025 Dominate tour.
Rather than treating the region as a stop on a global itinerary, JYP and Live Nation are now building region-specific programming around it, complete with local support acts at each city.
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View Partner Offer External Sponsor • Opens in New WindowWhether STRAYCITY expands beyond this three-city debut will likely depend on how these first shows land — both in terms of turnout and in how the group and its label respond to the ticketing criticism already surfacing in Mexico. For now, the festival’s opening night in Bogotá marks the start of what JYP Entertainment and Live Nation are clearly hoping becomes a recurring fixture on Stray Kids’ global calendar.
STRAYCITY 2026 dates:
- Bogotá, Colombia — September 9
- Rock in Rio (Brazil, not part of STRAYCITY) — on or around September 11
- Buenos Aires, Argentina — September 14–15
- Mexico City, Mexico — September 25–26