Rockstar Games has thrown launch concerts before, but never anything like this. Then again, when it comes to Grand Theft Auto VI, nothing is quite like what has come before. For the next Grand Theft Auto, the studio is celebrating its launch with an official two-stage music festival in Miami, headlined by the soundtrack's biggest names and it dwarfs every music event the company has put on.
Grand Theft Auto VI: The Festival is scheduled for November 21 at Mana Wynwood, two days after the game arrives and the only way in is to be part of a lottery. Rockstar is producing it with PlayStation and the team behind Miami's III Points festival, and the lineup reads like the tracklist come to life. Travis Scott headlines under his Cactus Jack banner with Don Toliver, Kodak Black and Sofaygo, alongside Cardi B, Metro Boomin and a deep bench of dance and reggaeton acts.
Rockstar's official event page calls it a one-of-a-kind launch event built to "experience the music of Vice City and Leonida," a live celebration of the game and its soundtrack in the place that inspired it. Rockstar Games picked Miami for a reason, the city is the blueprint for the game's Vice City and the wider state of Leonida.
Getting a wristband is the hard part. Entry is a lottery run through DICE, non-transferable and capped at two per person, with a 17-and-over age limit. Entries close on Tuesday, November 10 at 4 p.m. ET, and winners get the chance to buy when tickets go on sale Wednesday, November 11 at noon ET.
What makes this stand out is the scale. This isn't a first for Rockstar but it is bigger and built around chart-topping headliners. Around the launch of Grand Theft Auto V in 2013, it ran "Live From Los Santos," a concert of the game's score at the New York Film Festival's Convergence program with composers Tangerine Dream, Woody Jackson, The Alchemist and Oh No. In 2019 it partnered with Red Bull on "The Music of Red Dead Redemption 2," an audiovisual concert led by composer Woody Jackson.
A two-stage festival with Travis Scott and Cardi B is a different animal.
Rockstar's live music events over the years
Event | Game | Year | What it was |
|---|---|---|---|
Live From Los Santos | Grand Theft Auto V | 2013 | A score concert at the NYFF Convergence program, with Tangerine Dream, Woody Jackson, The Alchemist and Oh No |
The Music of Red Dead Redemption 2 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | 2019 | A Red Bull Music Festival concert led by composer Woody Jackson |
Grand Theft Auto VI: The Festival | Grand Theft Auto VI | 2026 | A two-stage Miami festival with Travis Scott, Cardi B, Metro Boomin and Justice |
From quiet score concerts to a star-studded Miami festival, Rockstar's live shows have grown with the games.
The wider industry rarely goes this big for a single launch because they rarely have any reason to do it. Virtual concerts are common now, with Fortnite drawing millions to in-game shows from Marshmello to a record-breaking Travis Scott set and PlayStation is running its own orchestral "The Concert" tour of game scores. A physical, multi-artist festival is a different sort of flex from Rockstar's earlier score concerts.
It doubles as a coming-out party for the music. The event draws straight from Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album, the 34-track official soundtrack, and the French duo Justice, who Rockstar confirmed for the game's original dynamic score, play a DJ set.
The festival caps a promotional run that turned Miami into one long Vice City advert, from a giant logo on the Kaseya Center to the Miami Heat playing a night as Vice City and a club rebranding as the in-game venue NINE1NINE. Most fans will be home with a controller on November 21. A lucky few thousand in Miami will hear the soundtrack the way the city that inspired it intended, loud and live.