Part 1 - Iron Maiden's arrival to Colombia

Iron Maiden is, without any doubt, one of the favourite bands of the colombian metalhads. The band was supposed to play there in 1992 but finally didn't, so I don't have to tell you how much all the people was waiting for this show.

Iron Maiden have their own colombian fansite, which you can visit on this location. There was also a contest organized for a colombian tribute CD, where people was invited to send their illustrations. The winner was my friend Felipe Machado, with his work The Golden Beast. You can see the whole gallery here.
Picture: Here you see the people camping in front of the venue on the day before, and the police taking care of them. They installed bathrooms and other facilities along the road!

Colombia was once a forgotten land from Rock world tours, but this has changed since a few years. Now a lot of major bands like Guns n'Roses, Megadeth, Def Leppard, Metallica, Leny Kravitz, Toto or Roger Waters have visited the country, as well as Testament, Within Temptation, Stratovarius, Hammerfall, Lacrimosa, Exodus, Rhapsody, Moonspell, Suicidal Tendencies, Hirax, Sadus, Morbid Angel, Nightwish, Fear Factory, Vader, Brujeria and many more. Some have even played in various tours, like Therion, Helloween, Mago de Oz, Paul DiAnno, Kreator, Dream Theater, Bon Jovi, Sepultura, Angra, Destruction, Napalm Death...

They know Metal is alive in this part of the world! That's why some bands record their live albums or DVD here, like Megadeth (Argentina), Iron Maiden (Brazil), Therion (CD in Colombia, DVD in Mexico), Helloween (Brazil)...
Bruce Dickinson said it during the show "It was worth. It took us 30 years to come to Colombia, but it was definitely worth".

Picture: Astraeus Airlines Boeing 757-23A, registration G-OJIB, also known as Ed Force One, Flight AEU666 from San José de Costa Rica landing in Bogotá at 4pm local time.

The concert attracted not only Colombians from all over the country, but also people from its neighbours: Venezuela, Perú and Ecuador... but I also saw fans from Germany, Italy, the USA, Mexico and Chile! According to some rumors, there were some 5000 foreigners attending the show.

One week before the concert people started to make a line in front of the venue! Yes, I arrived in Bogotá on february 23rd and while going to the show of the local band 4 to Egregor I saw a few tents from people camping there! By monday there were more than a hundred tents and 500 on the day before!

The pictures you see on the top this page are from the day before the concert, February 27th.

Anyway, it's a really big venue, but the organizers choose to limit the number of tickets to 50 000, so even if you're on the back you can see something...When Metallica played there, there were almost 90 000 people attending, and a lot of people complained that they couldn't see anything.

On february 27 I decided to go to Bogotá's El Dorado Airport see if I could catch Ed Force One, Maiden's planed piloted by Bruce Dickinson himself. I didn't know if they were going to use it for the european tour (now I know they will), so I tought this was my chance to spot it.

Picture: Here you see part of the welcoming team, just outside Bogotá's El Dorado Airport.

Oh! Did I mentioned that Eddie also was at the airport?

Maybe he got lost somewhere back in time and somehow managed to get to Colombia on time...

It was worth going to the Airport! Not only I could see the plane's arrival, but also the Colombian (but there were also Venezuelan, Panamean and Chilean folks) Welcome Team. It was pure Madness! Some 400 people screaming "Maiden! Maiden!" and running from gate to gate (Outside the Airport of course) to try to catch the band. Of course they left the airport from a well hidden door, but it was a great experience to be there. It felt like in 1984, on the "Behind The Iron Courtain" home video (now available on the "Live AFter Death" DVD) when they first went to Poland. Except that there was more people here and the band didn't show up...