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Iron Maiden had to play an abridged set in Paris on Monday (June 22) due to a power cut affecting the venue.
The British heavy metal legends put on a phone-free gig at La Défense Arena in the French capital and were recording footage for an upcoming concert film, but had their stagetime interrupted for approximately an hour.
As a result, the 17-song set they’ve been performing on the ongoing second European leg of their Run For Your Lives world tour was trimmed to 14 songs. The planned encore of Aces High, Fear Of The Dark and Wasted Years was dropped, as the band could not run past a strict 11:30pm venue curfew.
According to Ultimate Classic Rock, the power outage, which affected much of Paris’ Nanterre neighbourhood, occurred midway through the band’s performance of 1984 Powerslave single 2 Minutes To Midnight. Although backup generators kicked in shortly afterwards and brought the venue’s house lights back up, the show was unable to carry on until full power was restored.
Afterwards, many fans took to social media to express their frustration with the situation.
“The concert was great despite the power cut!” writes one. “However, La Défense Arena will always remain the worst venues [sic] on the Isle de France…”
“We came all the way from Romania for this show. We spent a lot of money on fucking Paris (which is expensive as we all know) just to be at this concert. We were waiting for this for so long. Fuck this,” adds another.
“The concert in Romania had terrible sound and this one was cut short. WHAT DO YOU MEAN we spent so much money to be here and it’s cut short?! It’s obviously not Maiden’s fault but oh is the frustration high!”
Although Maiden have encouraged fans at every stop of the Run For Your Lives tour to not film with their phones during the show, the Paris stop was the only gig so far where the rule was enforced. Fans had their devices placed in magnetically sealed Yondr pouches, which were kept on their person. The only way the pouches could be unsealed was by a member of security upon leaving the auditorium.
The band said that they put the rule into effect for this show to ensure “the optimal viewing experience” for fans who will watch the eventual concert film. It’s currently unknown whether Maiden still plan to release the footage despite the power cut.
Maiden’s phone-free policy mirrors the one that Ghost put into effect for two Los Angeles gigs in 2023, which were recorded for their 2024 film Rite Here, Rite Now. Talking to Hammer in 2025, singer Bruce Dickinson, who attended one of the shows, said he was a big fan of the Swedish hard rockers’ no-phone policy.
“Everybody was talking to each other like human beings!” he said. “I’m sat there, in the normal seats, and the lights are on and people are going past going, ‘Hey, it’s the guy from Iron Maiden!’ They’re waving at me. ‘Hi!’ ‘Cool, hey!’ Job done!
“Had they had a mobile phone, they would have been climbing over old-age pensioners [to take a picture]. The evidence of that was, after the show, everybody got their phones back and the backstage suddenly was like Animal House. Everybody was focussed on the show.”
The Run For Your Lives tour, which first made its way across Europe in the summer of 2025, will continue at Copenhagen’s Copenhell festival on Wednesday (June 24). This leg will wrap up with a performance at Knebworth House on July 11, when the band headline the second day of their own two-day festival, Eddfest. The Hu, The Darkness, Airbourne, The Almighty, the solo band of ex-Maiden singer Blaze Bayley and more are also on the lineup.
After the European leg ends, the band will bring the Run For Your Lives production to the Americas starting in August. Further shows in Asia and Australia are also planned. The tour will conclude with performances at K-Arena in Yokohama, Japan on November 24 and 25, after which Maiden will not take to the stage until 2028, at the earliest.
