Iron Maiden recently announced that they will headline the 2013 Download Festival on Saturday, June 15.
The concert is part of the band’s 2013 European tour – which sees them bring their “Maiden England World Tour” to the continent following its North American run this summer.
The Download show sees Maiden return to the legendary Donington Park to headline for a record FIFTH time, following appearances in 1988, 1992, 2003 & 2007.
That achievement is equally significant as 2013 is the 25th anniversary of Maiden first topping the bill there in 1988 when the festival was known as Monsters Of Rock attracting 107,000 fans, which is still the highest attendance ever at Donington. This was during their Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son tour, from which the current tour draws much of its inspiration for both set list and production as seen in the 1988 long form concert video “Maiden England.”
In part two of a new series of sessions with Metal Hammer magazine, Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson speaks about the band’s upcoming appearance at the 2013 event.
“There’s only a few bands, really, that can make a big fuss when you go to a place like [Donington],” says Dickinson. “Partly, it’s what they’re doing. If a band’s been doing festivals over and over and over again – every summer they come around – ‘oh, it’s them again.’ You lose a little bit of that excitement. It’s a neat trick if you can manage to keep the level of excitement up. In part, I think it’s because we’re doing this set, as well, so it is a historic set, it is a fantastic stage set. Everybody’s seen the setlist; everybody’s read the reviews; everybody’s got to see it in the flesh.”
Download 2013 takes place at Donington Park from June 14-16, 2013. Weekend with camping tickets go on sale 9.00am Friday 28 September from www.downloadfestival.co.uk.
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