How bald caps and cowboy boots took over live music as 'concert cosplay' reached fever pitch in 2025

Men's tees and baggy jeans for Billie Eilish. Leather and jeans for Lady Gaga. Bald caps and goatees for Pitbull.

This is how fans showed their love and devotion at live music events in 2025; through fashion.

More specifically, through 'concert cosplay' – the act of dressing up like your favourite artist or in a style specific to them for a concert.

The idea of dressing up for a concert is nothing new.

Australians have been putting on their best outfits to see their favourite artists perform live for decades, but they lengths they went to in 2025 was something else.

More than 80 per cent of concert goers of all generations, from Baby Boomers to Gen Z, want to dress to suit their favourite artist according to Live Nation data.

Almost 95 per cent said they're inclined to shop in preparation for live music events and 77 per cent experiment with new looks at music events. Especially at country music events.

READ MORE: Aussie Oasis fans get honest about moment they waited 20 years for

READ MORE: 'Why dressing as Pitbull was one of the best nights of my life'

The genre has exploded in popularity in Australia, with Live Nation recording a 746 per cent growth in country music ticket sales over the last five years.

Aussies have also been buying into the fashion, with one in two music admitting they've bought or worn country-inspired fashion in the past year.

Just look at Luke Combs' shows in January and February, or Ridin' Hearts Festival in October, where droves of fans arrived in bell bottoms, cowboy boots and trucker caps.

Other artists inspired more specific, niche concert fashion trends.

Who can forget when thousands of bald cap-wearing Pitbull fans with drawn-on goatees took over Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and Melbourne in October?

Women and men alike (but many more women, surprisingly) put on white button-downs, black ties and aviator sunglasses to see the Hotel Room Service singer headline the Fridayz Live Festival.

The crowd was a sea of Adidas shirts and track pants when Oasis played their sold-out shows in November.

That same month Metallica inspired grungy outfits and dramatic face paint, while AC/DC had grown men pulling on cut off shorts to relive their glory days.

Lady Gaga wrapped up her Mayhem Ball tour dates for the year in Sydney, where most of the crowd was dressed in crop tops, fishnets, sequins, or a combination of all three.

And K-pop fans routinely arrive at Australian shows decked out in their favourite idols' merch.

The outfits aren't just about looking good either.

"You only had to be at the Oasis, TWICE or Lady Gaga shows to feel the emotional connection and sense of community," Live Nation's integrated marketing director Erica Valenti told Nine.com.au.

A staggering 88 per cent of Gen Z music fans said the most exciting moment they experienced in 2025 was dressing up for live music events.

It's a way for them to express themselves, engage in fan communities, and experience a sense of belonging in a crowd full of people who love the same things they do.

It can also contribute to a sense of collective effervescence at concerts big and small.

A sociological concept coined by Émile Durkheim, collective effervescence occurs when a group or community comes together and experiences the same feelings or participates in the same action simultaneously.

It's that feeling you get when you're singing the words to your favourite song with tens of thousands of other people at Accor Stadium or the MCG, all wearing the same thing.

For many music fans, it's the best part of a concert (even if they don't know the word for it).

And it's part of the reason why concert cosplay was so popular in 2025 and will likely continue to be a huge trend in 2026.

So what's on the horizon for concert fashion in Australia next year?

Expect glitter and hotpants for Kesha in February, all-black ensembles for Pierce the Veil in April, a return to hipster style for Mumford & Sons the same month.

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