Concerts are a chance for the fans to watch their favorite musicians perform live. Depending on the venue, concert crowds range from tens of thousands to a few million. For artists and producers, filling up large spaces is often one of the biggest challenges. 

(Photo : barnimages.com via Flickr)
A concert crowd

Many artists were able to pull off a jam-packed venue, and some even overflowed. Here are some of the American artists whose concerts attracted a huge crowd. 

1. Monsters of Rock

Monsters of Rock was staged in Moscow, Soviet Union (now Russia) on September 28, 1991, three months after the Soviet Union fell apart. The concert was held in Tushino Airfield in Moscow, with AC/DC, Metallica, Pantera, The Black Crowes on stage. Russian heavy metal band E.S.T. performed as the front-act. The crowd was estimated to have reached 1.6 million. It is also considered to be one of the first concerts held in the then-closed country of the Soviet Union with bands coming from America, the country's rival during that period.

(Photo : met4forlife1995 via Youtube)
In 1991, the first concert made by Western musicians in the Soviet Union was organized by the festival Monsters of Rock and made almost 1.6 million people attended the heavy metal concert.

 2. New York Philharmonic Orchestra

The New York Philharmonic Orchestra is the only orchestra that has a record in having a huge crowd in a concert, or recital in their case. Their show, which was held at then newly-reopened Carnegie Hall in Ellis Island in 1986, was attended by 800,000 people, and was conducted by Zubin Mehta.

3. Garth Brooks

Pop-rock-country hybrid musician Garth Brooks is no stranger in making record-breaking live performances in the country genre. He is also one of the best-selling solo album artists in the US with 148 million records sold domestically alone and 170 worldwide. As part of his legendary live performances, in 1997, he performed a live free concert in the middle of Central Park in New York City. It gained a huge crowd of 750,000 and many more when the concert was broadcasted live on HBO.

4. The US Festival by Steve Wozniak

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak organized a music festival named the US Festival wherein some of the biggest names during their fame in 1983 namely Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, U2, Steve Hicks, and Van Halen. All of the esteemed artists are still popular and making records up to this date.

5. Frank Sinatra

The late Frank Sinatra held a concert in the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on January 26, 1980. The attendance was at 175,000 people, much lower compared to that of Monsters of Rock. However, it is still considered as one of the most successful shows by Sinatra. In fact, this concert earned the Guinness World Record for the largest live audience for a single artist at that time. Sinatra sold over 150 million singles worldwide in his entire career.

6. Live 8

In 2005, some artists staged a free concert in Philadelphia, PA two days before the Independence Day holiday. The attendance was said to have ranged from 800,000 to 1.5 million people. The media coverage of the live performance was also on a global scale, with major television channels from various countries airing the show. The performers were Linkin Park, Maroon 5, Jay-z, Stevie Wonder, and Toby Keith. The concert took place days before Hurricane Katrina hit the country in August of the same year.

(Photo : Siztrust via Wikimedia Commons)
Live 8 is one of the largest free concerts in the world with 800,000 to 1.5 million people attended the concert in 2005.

7. Tina Turner

Tina Turner's solo concerts were the most attended shows by a female artist. She proved this true when she performed in the same venue as Frank Sinatra's most welcomed concert eight years prior. She played at the Maracana Stadium in Rio on January 16, 1988, with an attendance of 180,000, breaking Sinatra's Guinness Record. She started in the industry in the 1960s, venturing into the rock and roll scene. She sold 200 million records during her career, which is still strong today.

Concerts of all sorts linger in the memories of the attendees for long, if not for a lifetime. However, concerts that gather massive crowds are remembered forever in the history of the music industry. 

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