Living heavy metal legends Iron Maiden have announced one of their most epic and historic world tours ever, celebrating the band’s 50th anniversary with a brand new show that will head across the globe in 2025 and 2026. The tour, titled Run For Your Lives, will feature a ‘classic era’ setlist exclusively airing material from the band’s first nine albums, from their 1980 debut to 1992’s Fear Of The Dark.
“Next year is a very special one for Iron Maiden and we’re going to be giving our fans a once-in-a-lifetime live experience,” says frontman Bruce Dickinson. “This is a tour that’s gonna put a smile on your face and a cheer in your throat. If you’ve seen us before, then get ready to take that experience to a whole new level. If you’ve never seen us before, then what the hell have you been waiting for? Now’s your chance to find out what you’ve been missing! Iron Maiden’s definitely gonna get ya!”
The tour’s first leg will take place next summer and kicks off at the Budapest Aréna on Tuesday May 27, the first of 27 dates that will take in arenas, stadiums and festivals across Europe. Amongst the announced dates are UK and Irish stop-offs in Birmingham, Manchester, Dublin, Glasgow and London, with the band’s London date serving as their biggest UK headline show ever, taking over the London Stadium in Stratford on Saturday June 28. Not only is the venue right around the corner from where bassist and Maiden founder Steve Harris grew up, but it’s the home stadium of his beloved Hammers, making for a historic and deeply personal moment in his and Maiden’s career.
“My love of football and my support of West Ham is no secret, and I know many of our fans around the world have shared that with me too,” says Harris. “So we’re all very excited to be playing at the London Stadium as part of the Run For Your Lives tour. And of course, it’s not just London – the whole UK tour is going to be a real celebration for all of us. To be able to bring this very special show to all our fans across the UK and Ireland next year is going to be a great way to mark 50 years of Iron Maiden. We can’t wait to see you all there!”
As well as the celebratory vibes of the tour’s setlist, the band are also promising their most spectacular live show ever to truly mark the occassion.
“50 years of Maiden and I have seen 46 of them!” says the band’s manager, Rod Smallwood. “With well over 100 million albums sold and almost 2500 shows in 64 countries and counting, to countless millions of fans, we are all still loving every second and consider every tour a new challenge to bring something different and exciting to our fans. And for this very special one we’ re pulling out all the stops!
“We will cover classics and fan favourites from the first nine albums, from Iron Maiden to Fear Of The Dark, many of which we haven’t played in years and many we will likely never play again in the future. We have already been hard at work for months putting together an even more spectacular and elaborate new show which will bring the songs to life more than we have ever been able to do before. This is going to be a huge couple of years for Iron Maiden, and Eddie of course, and we are very excited about what we have up our sleeves for you fans throughout the whole of our 50th year. I promise you are all going to be very happy indeed!”
Support for the first leg of the tour will come from a combination of US rock heavyweights Halestorm, theatrical Swedish metallers Avatar and British metal crew The Raven Age, dates dependant.
See the full list of announced dates so far below, with more expected to be added in due course. Tickets go on sale next week – head to the band’s official website for full details. Maiden are currently in the midst of the latest leg of their acclaimed Future Past Tour, which is still set to run through Japan, North America, Mexico and South America before the year is out. You can never accuse them of resting on their laurels, eh