July in Mexico City will not give you a typical summer day. Not ever — and certainly not in 2025.
There’s a Mexico City for every taste this month. From art exhibits touring from the Dallas Museum of Art to the capital’s half marathon, chaotic CDMX will keep you on your toes this rainy July.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Teatro Metropólitan
“Hi, we’ve missed you,” The Yeah Yeah Yeahs recently wrote in a post on their official Instagram account. “They don’t miss you like we miss you.”
Frontwoman Karen O and the boys will be returning to Mexico after a two-year Yeah Yeah Yeahs drought, bringing anthems like “Gold Lion” and “Date With the Night” to the Teatro Metropólitano on the first two nights of July. They’re celebrating their 25th anniversary this year, so Mexicans are ready to bang our heads to their greatest hits. You could too!
Dates: July 1 and 2
Location: Teatro Metropólitan. Ave. Independencia 90, Centro, Cuauhtémoc
Cost: Varies due to reserved seating
Casa Botánica 2025: Plant Bazaar
View this post on Instagram
Staycationers like myself just love these kinds of artsy local pop-up events, full of life, design and cute plants to light up our living rooms.
Casa Botánica 2025, a collective that combines plants, design, art, fashion and well-being, promises unique workshops on the first weekend of July where you’ll likely leave with something green you made to decorate your home.
Eager to craft a therapeutic pillow stuffed with dry flowers? Looking to deepen your knowledge on how to grow your own orchids? This is your chance!
Dates: July 4 through 6, 2025
Location: Lucerna 32, Juárez, Cuauhtémoc
Cost: Free admission. Workshop fees vary.
Mexicráneos exhibit
Mexico City usually awaits the annual Mexicráneos exhibit in November, just in time for Day of the Dead festivities across the capital. Traditionally occurring along Reforma Avenue, this exhibit showcases the talent of local artists and designers.
This year, Mexico City gets an early treat: the J. García López exhibition, featuring 105 monumental skulls, will arrive months ahead at the Xochimilco Ecological Park. Opening July 5, Mexicráneos 2025 will awaken the scent of cempasúchil flowers along the Xochimilco canals months before Día del Muertos.
Date: July 5 to Nov. 31
Location: Xochimilco Ecological Park
Cost: Free
Dharma Day Festival at the Buddhist Center
Dharma Day is traditionally “one of the most important days in the Buddhist calendar,” explains the Buddhist Center of Mexico City, “on which the Buddha’s first teaching is celebrated.”
Falling on July 10 this year, Buddhist temples and centers around the world will hold pujas — sacred chanting sessions — throughout the night and special meditations to honor Siddhartha Gautama. Mexico City’s Buddhist Center is no exception.
Celebrations begin on July 10 and continue through July 11, when the Center will hold its very own chanting and meditation program. Free talks and discussion groups on the meaning of dharma are also held every year. You can book your spot online or go directly to the center, located in Roma Norte.
Date: July 10 and 11, 2025
Location: Centro Budista, Jalapa 94, Roma Norte, Cuauhtémoc
Cost: By donation
Mexico City Half-Marathon
This year, 30,000 people will compete in the capital’s annual half-marathon on July 13. Starting at the Torre del Caballito and heading out to Lomas de Chapultepec before looping back and speeding their way down Paseo de la Reforma to reach the finish line at the city’s iconic Independence Angel.
Competitors must sign up online and be over 18 years of age. There is an entry fee.
By the way, unless you’re a participating runner or planning to attend, you may not want to leave home on Sunday, July 13, if you live in Mexico City. Authorities will close important roads along the route, starting with Reforma Avenue, and traffic will be chaotic. Take precautions!
Date: July 13, 2025
Location: Along Paseo de la Reforma and in Chapultepec Park
Cost: Registration starts at 650 pesos for Mexican citizens and US $85 for foreigners
Celebrate spirits at the Barra México festival
The Barra México Festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary on July 12–13 with cocktails, fine spirits, craft beer and a lot of wine.
Some of Mexico’s finest distilleries will be on hand to showcase their latest products. Representatives from Miami and London bars will be featured in this year’s lineup. Over 30 seminars, talks and tastings will also be held at the festival location: a Porfiriato-era estate that now functions as the Proyecto General Prim cultural center.
Some events will be available in English.
Date: July 12 and 13, 2025
Location: Proyecto General Prim cultural center at General Prim 30, Juárez, Cuauhtémoc
Cost: Day passes start at 2,250 pesos
Guided architectural tour of the Tamayo Museum
Master painter Rufino Tamayo, a Oaxaca native, always dreamed that his work would be framed by the trees of Chapultepec Park, and the museum that bears his name is the realization of that dream.
Renowned Mexican architects Teodoro González de León and Abraham Zabludovsky were in charge of the museum’s design, which won them the National Prize for Sciences and Arts in the Fine Arts category in 1972.
Given this site’s architectural importance, museum authorities host cultural walks every Sunday to appreciate the compound’s architectural details. Book your free tour a week in advance, as this activity is in very high demand.
Date: Every Saturday in 2025
Location: Museo Tamayo, Reforma Avenue 51, Polanco, Miguel Hidalgo
Cost: Free
Frida Kahlo: Life of an Icon
¡Fridalízate! (“Get Frida’d”) That’s the invitation this exhibit’s organizers make to the public with “Frida Kahlo: Life of an Icon.”
As an immersive biography experience, the Mexican artist’s entire pictorial work will dance before visitors’ eyes. The design agency Algo Studio collaborated with Museo Frida Kahlo to take a journey of the senses through the life and work of the surrealist painter.
For 60 minutes, visitors will indulge in immersive art on 1,000 square meters of screens. A mélange of historical photographs, original films, installations and digital art will make Kahlo’s legacy come to life.
Date: Runs until July 19
Location: Espacio ALTER. Laguna de Términos 260, Polanco, Miguel Hidalgo
Cost: 400-500 pesos
The Impressionist Revolution: From Monet to Matisse
This month is your very last chance to marvel at the great impressionist masters in the Palacio de Bellas Artes. Ending on July 27, this exhibit brings together some of the finest pieces from the Dallas Museum of Art collection. Renoir, Manet and some of the most renowned Impressionist painters have taken over the “Nacional” and “Diego Rivera” galleries of the Bellas Artes Museum.
The exhibition, according to organizers, seeks to reveal the “rebellious origins of the collective of independent artists known as the Impressionists,” in a statement earlier this year. If you haven’t had the chance to feast your eyes on Manet’s soft brushing technique, or Monet’s delicate “Le Pont Neuf”, this is your last chance! Plan a wonderful artsy Sunday morning and leave Centro Histórico feeling like a true art critic.
Date: Runs until July 27, 2025
Location: Palacio de Bellas Artes, Av. Juarez S/N, Centro Histórico
Cost: 95 pesos
Harry Potter: Visions of Magic
More interactive experiences with digital art in Mexico City? Yes, and this with a touch of whimsy, courtesy of every child’s favorite wizard — Harry Potter!
Harry Potter: Visions of Magic, taking place at the Gran Carpa Sante Fe circus hall, was designed for Potterheads who want to explore every corner of J.K. Rowling’s magical world. Inspired by the beloved film series, this exhibit recreates Harry Potter’s most iconic props and sets. From the Ministry of Magic to Knockturn Alley, visitors will be able to stroll their way across entire alleyways of screens. And yes, everyone gets an interactive magic wand too, to live out their Hogwarts fantasy.
Date: Runs until August 31, 2025
Location: Gran Carpa Santa Fe: Vasco de Quiroga 2000, Santa Fe, Álvaro Obregón
Cost: Tickets start at 630 pesos
Tim Burton’s Labyrinth
One of the first graduates of CalArt’s animation program, Tim Burton keeps most of the puppets he has used in his stop-motion films. Most of them are being exhibited throughout July at “Tim Burton’s Labyrinth,” a collection representing the American director and artist’s life’s work.
“’The Labyrinth’ is a portal into the mind of its creator,” organizers say.
The exhibit appeared at another venue in June and sold out quickly. Tickets for a second run at a new location will go on sale July 3.
Visitors can expect a 60-minute experience, featuring artifacts from Burton’s iconic films like “Batman,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “Corpse Bride,” and many others. Some of his original sketches are exhibited too, giving viewers a glimpse of the initial ideas that resulted in some of Burton’s darkest yet most endearing characters.
True to its name, the experience features multiple routes through which you can explore the exhibit, and you choose which route to take upon beginning your experience, providing visitors with unique experiences. A general admission ticket gives you access to one route of your choice; a premium ticket allows you to take more than one route consecutively, and gives you access to souvenir gifts to take home.
Note: Buy tickets here, but be aware that you must download the Fever ticketing management app to access your tickets. You can download the Fever app from the App Store (Apple) and the Google Play Store.
Dates: July 3, 2025–Sept. 28, 2025
Location: Av. Constituyentes 500, Lomas Altas, Miguel Hidalgo
Cost: General admission tickets start at 450 pesos.
Andrea Fischer contributes to the features desk at Mexico News Daily. She has edited and written for National Geographic en Español and Muy Interesante México, and continues to be an advocate for anything that screams science. Or yoga. Or both.
