HISTORY OF IRON MAIDEN: GOLDEN JUBILEE (2025 - 2026)

 2025–2026: Run for Your Lives 

 

On September 19, 2024, Iron Maiden announced 28 concerts for the European leg of their "Run for Your Lives World Tour" from 2025 to 2026. The European tour is scheduled to begin on May 27, 2025 in Budapest, and will end with a concert at National Stadium in Warsaw on August 2. The tour was associated with the celebration of the band's 50th Anniversary, as Steve Harris founded the band in December 1975. The band's golden jubilee resulted in a cross-section of the repertoire based on the band's first nine studio albums, including the most famous hits and less obvious compositions. In the many months preceding the concerts, a spectacular visual setting was also built, thanks to which the Iron Maiden concert experience took the audience to a new level. The band has mainly organized concerts in sports stadiums and open air, although there have been a few performances in sports arenas. 

 

The European tour announced for 2025 brought one of the largest schedules of stadium concerts (indoors and outdoors) and open-air in the history of such undertakings of the band. For the first time, the Ernst-Happel Stadion in Vienna, the London Stadium in the capital of the UK, the Viking Stadion in Stavanger, the Stadio Euganeo in Padua, Malahide Castle Park in Dublin, the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester and the Veltis Arena in Gelsenkirchen were rented. In other cities, concerts were booked at venues frequently visited by the band. The pre-sale of tickets for Fan Club members for the European stage in 2025 was the largest in the history of the band to date. Tickets for concerts in all sports arenas were sold within a few minutes or a few dozen seconds.
The huge demand forced the doubling of dates in Berlin, Paris and Budapest. Stadium shows in Finland, Sweden (two nights), Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Norway sold out in record time after a few minutes of opening the sale. Such great interest was an unprecedented event in Iron Maiden's history. For the eleventh time in Iron Maiden's history, they became headliners of the Belgian "Graspop Festival". 32 concerts were able to gather more than 1.3 million people, meanwhile, over a million tickets were sold on the first day of sale, which was a record achievement for the band. 24 concerts were sold out immediately on the first day of the opening of the sales.

On March 14, 2025, Universal Pictures Content Group announced the global premiere of the official Iron Maiden documentary. The docum featured exclusive interviews with past and present members of the band, never-before-seen footage, and brought the band's mascot Eddie to life in spectacular 3D animation. Universal Pictures Content Group acquired global rights, while Universal Pictures International distributed the film worldwide, scheduled for a fall 2025 release to coincide with the band's 50th anniversary. The official documentary was directed by Malcolm Venville ("Churchill at War") and produced by Dominic Freeman ("Spirits in the Forest – A Depeche Mode Film"). Helen Parker, Executive Vice President of Universal Pictures Content Group, served as executive producer. The 50-year history of Iron Maiden is told through the eyes of the band and its most devoted followers – from long-time superfans to renowned figures from the worlds of film and music such as Javier Bardem, Lars Ulrich and Gene Simmons.
The producers examine the cultural movement that Iron Maiden helped to shape and the enduring legacy of both the band and its subculture, challenging stereotypes about the broader significance of rock and heavy metal music to contemporary culture. Also in March, Thames & Hudson announced the publication of "Iron Maiden: Infinite Dreams – The Official Visual History", a visual celebration of the first 50 years of Iron Maiden, chronicling the evolution of heavy metal’s most prestigious band, including the unparalleled contributions of the band members and management to one of the UK’s most influential and best-selling bands, who went on to become the biggest metal band in the world.

Arranged chronologically, "Iron Maiden: Infinite Dreams" charts the band’s history from their first pub gigs in 1975 and first record deal in 1979, through the recording and response to groundbreaking albums including their raw and rought self-titled debut, 1982’s global breakthrough The Number of the Beast and the stadium-busting Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, to 2021’s double album Senjutsu and the upcoming "Run For Your Lives World Tour". At the end of April, well over 1 million tickets were sold for 32 European shows.
The band's management has requested that fans refrain from excessive filming of the concerts. The tour, celebrating the band's 50th anniversary, turned out to be the boldest and most technologically advanced undertaking to date. The band abandoned traditional stage design and inflatable elements in favor of a multimedia setting, created using seven immersive screens mounted on the entire stage structure. The lighting, pyrotechnics, special effects, and an expanded stage platform were the largest in the band's history. The stunning visual setting attracted conceptual animations, clips, and 3D films created using AI capabilities, which translated into a fully realistic final effect. It was the band's first-ever tour to use cutting-edge technology, which created a completely new quality that changed the rules of the game.