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"You'd think there was a football match on!" grins Bruce Dickinson as he looks out over 50,000 giddy Iron Maiden fans having a thoroughly lovely time in the hazy evening sunshine. In just over three hours from now, England's men's team will have confirmed their place in a World Cup semi final, but here at Knebworth, there are far more pressing matters: celebrating 50 years of this country's most storied heavy metal band.
A year on from a historic homecoming gig at West Ham's London stadium, you'd be forgiven for assuming that Eddfest - Maiden's first ever curated, multi-day festival - is little more than a fist-pumping victory lap for a band that are well into the second year of their Run For Your Lives world tour. Nope. From the second you walk onto the festival grounds, you feel less like you're at Yet Another Iron Maiden Show and more like you've just stumbled into a fanatic Maiden fan club member's fever dream.
At the top of the site is an open air mini-museum boasting props and costumes from five decades of touring. Everything from Paul Di'Anno's 80s leather jacket to OG Pharaoh Eddie and Dance Of Death grim reapers are on display, and fans of all ages are gravitating to attractions from their favourite era; everyone has that Maiden tour that means something to them.
Around the corner is 'Maidenville', a bespoke mini-fest of its own featuring Eddie-fied attractions, a Maiden-themed tattoo parlour, an Eddie dive bar and its own stage which, last night, Maiden alumni Blaze Blayley headlined. We're in Maiden heaven here, basically, and the main event hasn't even got going yet.
Eddfest's main stage eventually kicks off courtesy of some well-received pub rock boisterousness from The Almighty and Airbourne, but it's The Hu who really crank things up a notch. Their unique Mongolian folk metal stomp sounds huge, and the band look genuinely blown away to be here and at the reception they receive.
The Darkness arrive next, and while their decision to start their set with a cut from last year's decent but lesser known Dreams On Toast album warrants a relatively muted response, they quickly make amends with a riotous showing packing plenty of bangers from legendary debut Permission To Land, a cheeky Led Zeppelin jam and a welcome drop of the title track from the vastly underrated One Way Ticket To Hell...And Back.
It goes down very well, but nothing can compare to the reaction that greets the PA blasting UFO's Doctor Doctor about 40 minutes later, signalling the arrival of this weekend's grand finale. The huge LED backdrop that has given Maiden a thoroughly modern upgrade on this tour flickers into life, and suddenly Knebworth is bathed in the gloomy, amber hue of 80s East London, a rollocking Murders In The Rue Morgue kicking off the gritty but anthemic four-track run plucked from the band's Di'Anno era.
Stomping around in a biker jacket, long hair pulled tight into a slick ponytail, Bruce Dickinson sounds on fine form as he screeches his way through a lairy Number Of The Beast next, Steve Harris' propulsive bass lines thundering along under his wails as the band are surrounded by bursts of fiery orange flame.
"This is the first time we've played this song in 38 years," Dickinson notes before Maiden launch into much-requested, Seventh Son-era fan favourite Infinite Dreams. "Well...technically it's the first time since Tuesday night in Lisbon, but don't worry about that," he corrects himself to a few thousand chuckles. The atmosphere here is as warm as the weather, and the metal veterans seem to be enjoying the hell out of themselves.
Infinite Dreams is the only tweak from last year's setlist (and a welcome one at that; what took them so long?!), meaning that many here already know what to expect from hereon in. Not that it matters; whether they're dropping urgent heavy metal ragers like 2 Minutes To Midnight and Powerslave or prog metal epics like Rime Of The Ancient Mariner and a stunning Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, Maiden are putting on a masterclass in heavy metal history, and everyone is lapping it up.
These lads rarely miss live, though. What really sets this performance aside is that it's brought to a close a whole weekend that has allowed one of metal's most passionate fanbases to immerse themselves in Maiden's world. Iron Maiden won't be here in another 50 years' time, but their legacy will. What a triumph.
