Iron Maiden have issued an official statement addressing the power outage that brought their filmed concert at Paris La Défense Arena to a halt on Monday night (June 22), with frontman Bruce Dickinson thanking fans for their patience and vowing the band will find a way to fix the disrupted show for its eventual release.
The band had returned to the 37,000-capacity indoor stadium, home of the Racing 92 rugby club, specifically to film the concert for a future release, having played two sold-out nights there a year earlier. The indoor setting and the famously energetic Paris crowd made it an ideal venue for capturing the performance on camera.
But around 50 minutes into the set, toward the end of “2 Minutes To Midnight“, a total power cut shut everything down. The band confirmed the cause is still being looked into, pointing to reporting from the French national newspaper Le Figaro.
“Officials are investigating whether the outage was linked to the extreme heat. However, French electricity distributor Enedis said the problem did not appear to originate from the public power grid and was more likely related to the arena’s own electrical installation. The exact cause remains under investigation,” the band quoted.
Iron Maiden managed to get back on stage about an hour after the cut, resuming with “Rime Of The Ancient Mariner“. But time was working against them. The show had a hard 11 p.m. curfew, which the local police chief would only push back to 11:35 p.m. — and no further. The band were told that all local transport in the area would stop by 12:15 a.m., and authorities could not risk having more than 30,000 fans stranded on the streets with no way home.
That narrow window gave the band just enough time to finish the main set, closing with “Iron Maiden“, but it forced them to scrap the entire encore.
In his statement, Dickinson struck a tone of gratitude and determination, promising the missing songs would be sorted out for the final concert film.
“Despite everything, the audience and atmosphere last night were fantastic and, like every other challenge Iron Maiden have faced over the years, we’ll find a way to deal with and overcome the missing songs in the encore when it comes to the final film.”
“We know that many of you travelled long distances, waited patiently throughout the interruption, and were looking forward to experiencing the complete ‘Run For Your Lives‘ show. We share your disappointment. No one is more frustrated than the band and crew, who were eager to deliver the full performance you deserved.”
“What we will remember most from last night is the incredible spirit inside the arena. Your patience, understanding and unwavering support through an extremely challenging situation meant the world to us. The energy in the room was remarkable and is exactly what we have to come to expect from Paris, and a reminder of why we always love playing here.”
“Thank you, Paris.”
Longtime Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood also praised the crowd and detailed just how brutal the conditions became once the air conditioning died along with the power.
“The fans were magnificent and a huge thanks to them from the band for their patience and support. It just illustrates again what great fans we have. The temperature in Paris was as high as 44°C that day and the hall AC went off with the cut so of course, with so many people in there, it soon got hot while they were waiting for us to be able to resume playing. Naturally when we continued with the lights and pyro and excitement it got seriously hot for fans and band. Despite that, the energy of the reaction was incredible!”
The Paris date is part of Iron Maiden‘s ongoing 50th-anniversary “Run For Your Lives” world tour, a celebration of the band’s first half-century that draws its setlist from their first nine studio albums. The trek continues across stadiums and major venues worldwide, including a headline slot at America’s Louder Than Life festival in Kentucky on September 17, 2026.
The band has said it expects to learn exactly what caused the power failure in the coming days.
