Westlife - 25: The Anniversary World Tour: Dates, Tickets & Venue (Pasay)

Two Nights on the Bay

Westlife play Pasay twice. 25: The Anniversary World Tour takes place at SM Mall of Asia Arena on January 20 and January 21, 2027. That gives the Philippine leg two back-to-back evenings instead of one.

The tour marks a quarter century since the Irish group first broke through. They formed in Sligo in 1998, and late-1999 singles like “Swear It Again” and “Flying Without Wings” started a long run of UK number ones. Those ballads found an unusually devoted audience in the Philippines, and the band have played Manila many times over the years.

Expect a hits-heavy, anniversary-shaped evening. Those songs (“My Love”, “Uptown Girl”, “World of Our Own”, “You Raise Me Up”) are the catalogue people grew up singing at karaoke. Nobody has published a setlist here, so think of these as the band’s history rather than a promise.

The Arena at the Edge of Manila Bay

SM Mall of Asia Arena is a large indoor bowl at the western end of the Mall of Asia complex. It sits on reclaimed land in Bay City, where Pasay meets the water. For concerts it holds up to roughly 20,000 people across a floor area and tiered seating that wraps the stage end.

From outside it looks like a curved, glass-and-metal shell. Wide plazas around it handle the crowds coming in and out. The SMX Convention Center and SM Mall of Asia itself, one of the largest malls in the country, are both a short walk away. Food, toilets and air-conditioning are therefore never far from the queue.

Inside, the upper tiers rake steeply, so even the far seats look down onto the stage rather than across a long hall. For a ballad group, where the big moments are four voices and a key change, the room works well.

Where the Tickets Live

Tickets for concerts at SM Mall of Asia Arena are typically sold through SM Tickets. Its outlets are inside SM malls nationwide, including the Mall of Asia, and it also sells online. The tour’s promoter and SM Tickets publish the seat plan, ticket tiers and entry rules for these two dates.

Seating at the arena usually splits into several tiers:

• Floor or VIP sections nearest the stage, often seated for a show like this
• Lower Box, the first ring of tiered seats, with the best balance of view and sound
• Upper Box, higher and further back
• General Admission, the top tier, unreserved, where fans who want a seat near the rail usually queue longest

Resale through unofficial sellers outside the venue is a well-known risk at big Manila shows. Fans generally stick to the official channels.

Reaching the Mall of Asia Complex

Pasay is the most convenient part of Metro Manila for visiting fans. NAIA airport is just southeast of the complex, and the ride is usually short outside rush hour. Plenty of international visitors fly in, stay a night or two near the bay, and fly out again.

Common ways in:

• Grab or taxi: the simplest option. Drop-offs happen around the arena and mall entrances, and evening traffic on EDSA and Macapagal Boulevard is often slow.
• LRT-1: ride to EDSA station, then take a jeepney or bus marked “MOA” for the last stretch along EDSA towards the bay.
• MRT-3: the line ends at Taft Avenue, next to LRT-1 EDSA, so the same MOA connection applies.
• Driving: the complex has extensive mall parking, and it fills up on concert nights.

Most visitors stay in the hotels along Macapagal Boulevard or around the Mall of Asia itself. Others base themselves in Makati or Bonifacio Global City and accept a longer ride.

Sunset on the Seaside Boulevard

Pasay has a pre-show ritual that most concert venues can’t offer. Behind the mall, the Seaside Boulevard runs along a seawall facing west over Manila Bay. In January, the heart of the dry season, the sun usually sets over the water with ships at anchor on the horizon.

On concert days, groups of fans in tour shirts tend to gather here before heading to the arena. Food stalls and casual restaurants line the promenade. The MOA Eye ferris wheel turns at the bay end of the complex.

January evenings are among the mildest of the Manila year: still warm, but drier than the monsoon months. That makes the walk from the seawall to the arena doors genuinely pleasant.

How a Manila Crowd Does Westlife

Filipino concert crowds sing, and at a Westlife show they sing everything. The audience usually carries the first chorus of the big ballads before the band reach it. Phone lights go up on cue for the slow numbers. If you know the words, nobody minds you using them.

Practical habits regulars follow:

• Bags get searched at the entry points. Outside food and drink, large umbrellas and professional cameras are commonly refused at SM Mall of Asia Arena, and the event’s own rules set the final list.
• Card and mobile payments work at the mall and most arena concessions. GCash and Maya are widely used across Metro Manila. A little cash still helps with jeepneys and seawall stalls.
• Merchandise lines form at the booths around the arena well before doors. Fans who want a tour shirt usually make that their first stop.
• Dress is casual, with a light layer for the air-conditioning inside, which runs cold.
• Getting out takes patience. Thousands of people leave at once and ride-hailing prices surge, so many fans eat a late meal in the mall or walk the bay first.

After the Encore

The Mall of Asia complex stays busy after big events. Its restaurants and the seaside strip give the crowd somewhere to go while the roads clear. Since the run covers two nights, some fans attend both: one in the upper tiers for the whole picture, one closer to the stage.

If you have a free day around January 20-21, a few spots are nearby:

• Intramuros, the old walled city, is a short drive north along Roxas Boulevard.
• Rizal Park sits next to Intramuros.
• The Cultural Center of the Philippines complex lies on the bay between Pasay and Manila.

All of them make a gentler counterpoint to an arena night spent singing at full volume.