Week 606 · Mexico City
Oasis in
When Oasis announced their reunion tour, the east coast dates were gone. The choice came down to LA or Mexico City — Mexico City won on logistics, price, and pure interest. We got in a couple of days early to explore before the main event.
Zócalo is the central square of Mexico City — the last time we were here was in 2016, right before the Day of the Dead. This time it was Mexican Independence Day (not Cinco de Mayo, as every American assumes) and the crowds for the evening concert were already gathering. We did a quick loop, went to one of the restaurants overlooking the square, and then headed down the street to the Palacio de Bellas Artes.
Friends from Mexico City had always recommended the Palacio de Bellas Artes, and we finally made it. The building itself is worth a visit — originally built as the National Theatre, construction stalled during the Mexican Revolution and it was finally finished as the Palace of Fine Arts in the 1930s. A young art student offered us a tour (authorized by the museum) and he was exceptional.
He explained that after the Mexican Revolution, there were three great muralists — the "great ones" — and all three painted large murals representing the change in Mexico. All three were communists: two followers of Stalin, one of Lenin. They hated each other, and during construction the sections had to be separated with curtains. Our guide focused mostly on Diego Rivera's Man, Controller of the Universe — originally painted for John D. Rockefeller at New York's Rockefeller Center. Rockefeller destroyed it because Lenin appeared on the "good" side of the mural and capitalism on the "bad" side. Rivera recreated it from photographs. The other two great ones were José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
On the flight over, the guy next to me was trying to sell me detailed software for sun-tracking solar panels. At some point he realised I wasn't buying — but he did mention Polanco, the upscale neighbourhood north of Chapultepec Park. Our friend who had lived in Mexico City gave the same recommendation and suggested an Italian restaurant called Parole. So we made reservations.
We arrived on Avenida Presidente Masaryk — the most expensive street in Mexico, and it looked it. Our restaurant was a block off the main strip in a heavily wooded old neighbourhood where large mansions had been converted into restaurants and boutiques. The diagonal streets of Oscar Wilde and Jules Verne had the most going on. Parole was very good — we got a surprise when the wait staff turned out to also be professional singers. The design of the space confused us for a while: we eventually figured out we were sitting in the enclosed front yard of a mansion, with the actual house walls behind glass panels.
"We walked next door to Blanco Castelar — even nicer. Both turned out to be the same house: the former Casa Domit, a 1930s California-style mansion that could pass for Westwood Village."
Inside Parole — what looks like an outdoor courtyard is actually enclosed in a steel-and-glass space frame. The walls you can see are the exterior walls of the original house.
Reforma Avenue runs east–west for about four miles from the park near Palacio de Bellas Artes through the Bosque de Chapultepec. We walked the whole thing after a good enchilada breakfast, intending to visit the castle — but the park entrance was closed for an Independence Day ceremony. Google's AI helpfully suggested the castle was indefinitely closed, with a link to a news article. We couldn't confirm this from any other source, so we walked to the ticket office anyway. It was open, with a long line of pale English people, mostly in Oasis shirts. The line moved fast.
Chapultepec Castle was built by the Spanish for the highest colonial administrator and ultimately became the official residence of Emperor Maximilian I and Empress Charlotte. We had just visited Maximilian's other primary residence in Trieste, Italy a few weeks earlier — nice to be born into royalty, even if you're not a direct heir and end up getting shot. The first floor was a history museum covering Mexican Independence, which had the interesting detail of maps showing California and Texas as part of Mexico pre-1840. The upper floors were the royal residence, and multiple levels of gardens covered the grounds and rooftop.
Chapultepec Castle is the only royal castle in North America to have been used as an official royal residence — home to Emperor Maximilian I and Empress Charlotte of Mexico from 1864 to 1867, before Maximilian was captured and executed. His other palace was Miramare Castle in Trieste, Italy.
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez · Mexico City · September 2025 · 70,000 people
I've seen Oasis once before, Noel solo twice, and Liam solo once. This was the best of the four — although Noel performing with U2 in London was close, and there was a rainy festival in rural Korea that I still think about. Initially I was a little disappointed the concert wasn't at the Estadio Azteca, which is a famous venue. But the F1 track turned out to be perfect — better than a sports stadium because the floor area is much wider.
The F1 circuit is next to the airport, about 20 minutes from our hotel in normal traffic. We allowed 45 minutes and then extended to an hour when the rain started. The stadium sits in the middle of the race course — you enter through the straight-away — a genuinely unique setup. Outside, dozens of booths were selling bootleg merchandise at under $10 a T-shirt or bucket hat. This explained why we'd seen so many people in Oasis gear all day around the city. Very efficient.
One of several dozen unofficial merchandise stands outside the circuit — T-shirts under $10, bucket hats the same. Explains the universal Oasis gear visible across Mexico City all day.
We had seats about four rows from the top. Our usher took us to our seats, kicked out the people already sitting there, then asked for a tip. That was a first. Once seated — two hours of 70,000 people standing pretty much the whole time. Champagne Supernova, Don't Look Back in Anger, Live Forever, Wonderwall. Worth every logistical headache of getting to Mexico City instead of the east coast.
