THE APEX TIMES
Bad Bunny and Rauw Alejandro are working with touring designer Adrian Martinez’s STURDY to stage larger-scale concert productions, Billboard reports
Billboard says touring direction professional Adrian Martinez, after frustration as a freelancer, built STURDY to help artists develop and execute high-concept tour worlds on a scale aimed at matching what audiences increasingly expect.
Bad Bunny and Rauw Alejandro are turning to Adrian Martinez, a touring director and designer who created the company STURDY, to develop large-scale concert productions described by Billboard as “concert worlds” built “on a much greater scale than we’ve ever seen.” The report, published July 30, frames the collaboration as part of a broader shift in how major recording artists plan tours, emphasizing end-to-end design and execution rather than assembling production work through separate vendors alone.
Billboard reports that Martinez’s path to STURDY came from difficulties working as an independent freelancer, including frustrations tied to coordinating complex, multi-disciplinary production needs across different teams. According to the article, rather than continue relying on ad hoc arrangements, Martinez built a structure intended to support artists through the full creative and operational process of staging a tour, from early concepts to on-the-ground delivery.
The approach, as described by Billboard, is tailored to the expectations surrounding big-name tours, where visual storytelling, stage mechanics, show pacing, and audience experience are treated as interconnected elements. In that framing, STURDY’s role is positioned as helping artists move from creative intent to a cohesive production system, including the practical work of realizing ambitious design concepts in live settings.
Billboard also connects the company’s focus to a recognizable industry reality: as touring budgets and ambitions rise, the challenge is not only creative vision, but also execution, reliability, and coordination. The report describes Martinez’s work as aimed at giving artists a clear pathway to build shows that operate as fully developed worlds, rather than collections of performances.
While Billboard’s article highlights the scale ambitions for Bad Bunny and Rauw Alejandro, it does not provide detailed specifications in the reported excerpt regarding dates, venues, or the particular technical elements expected in each production. Instead, it emphasizes the underlying production model Martinez is offering: a single organization intended to streamline the design and delivery work that can otherwise be distributed across multiple parties.
The report situates Martinez within the broader entertainment industry, including recognition of his work through Billboard’s 40 Under 40 program, and portrays STURDY as an example of how touring specialists are professionalizing the creative-production pipeline. By focusing on both artistic and operational capability, STURDY is presented as a way to reduce friction in the planning-to-execution process for artists scaling up show concepts.
As of the publication date of the Billboard report, the collaboration’s public detail level appears concentrated on the production partnership and its creative rationale, rather than a fully enumerated list of show components. Further specifics, such as tour announcements, staging plans, and production partner credits for each market, would depend on subsequent official releases from the artists, tour promoters, or participating production companies.
For audiences, the practical effect is a continued trend toward more immersive live shows, with touring designers working to align creative direction with the realities of production schedules and live performance constraints. For the industry, the reported model also reflects how specialized touring professionals are attempting to package both creative direction and execution support into a more integrated service, potentially influencing how future high-concept tours are assembled.
Why It Matters
- Large-scale concert productions require intensive coordination, and a more integrated touring design-and-execution model can affect how quickly artists can move from concept to final show plans.
- If STURDY’s approach is adopted widely, it could reshape how major artists staff tour development and how production work is divided among vendors and creative teams.
- A push toward more immersive “concert worlds” reflects changing audience expectations for live entertainment, influencing production spending priorities and planning timelines.
- Because the Billboard report focuses on the partnership framework rather than detailed show specifications, subsequent official tour announcements will be important for confirming how these concepts translate into specific staging and technical choices.
Key Facts
- Billboard reported on July 30, 2026 that Bad Bunny and Rauw Alejandro are working with touring director Adrian Martinez.
- Billboard said Martinez created STURDY, positioning it as a service for designing and executing large-scale tour productions.
- Billboard described the goal as creating “concert worlds” on a much greater scale than prior tours, in the context of audience expectations.
- Billboard reported that Martinez built STURDY after feeling frustrated while working as a freelancer.
- The Billboard article also referenced Martinez in connection with its 40 Under 40 recognition program.