Half a century after its creation, the heavy metal legend Iron Maiden turned the National Stadium “Vasil Levski“ into a stage for a large-scale rock performance. Over 30,000 people filled the stands and the field for the concert from the two-year anniversary tour Run For Your Lives, with which the group celebrates half a century of history.
The musicians arrived in Sofia in their classic lineup – Bruce Dickinson (vocals), Steve Harris (bass), Dave Smith, Adrian Smith and Yannick Gers (guitars), and Nico McBrain (drums).
With the first chords of Murders in the Rue Morgue, it became clear that the concert would not be just a retrospective, but a carefully selected journey to the strongest years of Maiden's early history, they commented to fans. According to them, the setlist was built almost like a story – the raw energy of Wrathchild and Killers takes you back to the early 80s, and Phantom of the Opera reminds you of how theatrical and ambitious the band was in its early years.
The evening gradually moved from early heavy metal to the large-scale epic compositions that turned Iron Maiden into a global phenomenon – such as The Number of the Beast, and one of the most special performances was Infinite Dreams – a song that the band included on the tour for the first time since 1988.
After that, the concert took on an even more cinematic look. Powerslave, 2 Minutes to Midnight and the monumental Rime of the Ancient Mariner transformed the stage into a veritable theater of lights, pyrotechnics and gigantic visuals, from the euphoria of Run to the Hills to the more special atmosphere of Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.
A peculiar highlight of the evening was The Trooper and when Bruce Dickinson came out with the Bulgarian tricolor waving. Throughout the show, he did not stop communicating with the audience, repeatedly repeating the name of Sofia and Bulgaria, and the stadium responded with deafening chants. Fans also commented that Dickinson was in great shape for his 67 years, putting on a great show, having a very strong aura and stage presence, and it was obvious that he was into fencing.
Hallowed Be Thy Name and Iron Maiden ended the main part of the concert, before the band returned for the encores, which began with Winston Churchill's speech and Aces High. Then came Fear of the Dark, sung in unison by tens of thousands of people, and the finale was Wasted Years - as a summary.
“We'll see you again“, Bruce Dickinson promised on the final straight of the event. And before the stadium lights went out, he addressed the crowd with the words: “Have a good evening, a good week and a good life. You deserve it“. Before that, one of the funniest moments in the show was his line "It must be rakia" after he raised a military canteen on stage.
Among the fans was Zvezdomir Keremedchiev-Zvezdi from "Ahat". He, together with the Bulgarian rock band, in 2007 supported Iron Maiden's second concert in Sofia, which took place at the "Lokomotiv" stadium. 31 years have passed since the heavy metal band's first visit to our country. Then the show was in the "Hristo Botev" hall. The band came to Sofia in 2014, and four years later they visited Plovdiv, to return to Sofia again in 2022.
A special guest on the evening of May 26 were the American thrash metal veterans Anthrax, who performed a 45-minute warm-up concert. The headliners appeared an hour and 15 minutes later.
Earlier, President Iliana Yotova met with the musicians from Iron Maiden and expressed her impression that they are extremely down-to-earth people.