Fourteen Icelanders experience blackout at Iron Maiden concert | Morgunblaðið (IS)

A group of fourteen dedicated Icelandic heavy metal fans found themselves in unexpected darkness during an Iron Maiden concert in Paris. The power outage struck La Défense Arena, Europe's largest indoor concert venue, just as the iconic band launched into their song "2 Minutes to Midnight."

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They were playing 2 Minutes to Midnight and Bruce [Dickinson] was just in the middle of a sentence when everything went silent and darkness fell.

Andrés Birkir Sighvatsson, who was attending the concert with his wife Thelma Ögn Sveinsdóttir Bryde, described the sudden plunge into darkness. "They were playing 2 Minutes to Midnight and Bruce [Dickinson] was just in the middle of a sentence when everything went silent and darkness fell," he recounted. Initially, many of the over 40,000 concertgoers believed the blackout was a deliberate part of Iron Maiden's renowned stage performance, given the band's elaborate shows and their 50th anniversary.

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I think the peak today is 39 degrees but in direct sunlight the heat is over 50 degrees.

However, the darkness persisted, revealing it was not part of the act. The power failure affected the entire neighborhood, and speculation pointed to the ongoing European heatwave as a potential cause, with temperatures soaring. The incident occurred after the Icelandic group had attended the Graspop Metal Meeting festival in Belgium and were on their way to see Foo Fighters in Liverpool. Despite the disruption, some members of the group continued their travels, while others, including Andrés and Thelma, were heading to another concert.

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All the seats were almost packed and completely full on the floor and we were in great spirits, hyped up after four days at Graspop and Iron Maiden is a dream band for almost the whole group.