site.btaIron Maiden’s "Run For Your Lives" Tour Draws Massive Crowd in Sofia

More than 30,000 fans packed Sofia’s Vasil Levski National Stadium on Monday night as legendary British heavy metal band Iron Maiden delivered a powerful performance celebrating 50 years on stage. The concert, part of the band’s two-year “Run For Your Lives” anniversary tour, transformed the stadium into a massive spectacle of lights, pyrotechnics and towering visual effects, while generations of Bulgarian fans sang along to classics spanning the group’s early decades.

Opening with “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” the band quickly set the tone for a show focused on the raw energy and theatrical ambition of its early years. Songs such as “Wrathchild,” “Killers,” and “Phantom of the Opera” drew roaring reactions from the crowd, while epic performances of “The Number of the Beast,” “Powerslave,” and “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” turned the evening into what many fans described as a cinematic experience. One of the night’s most emotional moments came during “Fear of the Dark,” sung almost entirely by the audience.

Frontman Bruce Dickinson kept up a constant dialogue with the crowd throughout the night, repeatedly shouting “Sofia” and “Bulgaria” as fans answered with deafening chants. During “The Trooper,” Dickinson waved a Bulgarian flag on stage, drawing huge applause, and later joked “It must be rakia” after taking a sip from a military flask. Closing the concert with “Wasted Years,” Dickinson promised the audience, “We will see each other again,” before wishing fans “a good evening, a good week and a good life.”

American thrash metal veterans Anthrax opened the night with a 45-minute set.