IRON MAIDEN: Bologna Concert Canceled 'Due To Very Bad And Dangerous Weather Conditions'

**Update**: On Friday (July 8),IRON MAIDEN manager Rod Smallwood issued the following statement regarding the Bologna cancelation: "The band and l are so sorry we were unable to play for our fans in Bologna last night. As the weather conditions worsened, the promoters came to us concerned about the safety of everyone and the viability of doing the show. They made further enquiries and decided that the event should be cancelled for safety reasons and announced this from onstage. I have to say I fully agreed with this decision and that it was the responsible thing to do considering the amount and scale of surrounding lightning and high winds and having been told what was expected to follow.

"We love playing to audiences here and the last thing we wanted to do was not play and we feel very sorry for our fans who were there, and we fully understand and sympathise with the frustration. It is not possible to reschedule this show, but we promise our fans in Italy that we will return next year."

The original article follows below.

IRON MAIDEN's concert in Bologna, Italy Thursday night (July 7) has been canceled "due to very bad and dangerous weather conditions, including extensive lightning and high winds," according to a post on the Bologna Sonic Park Facebook page.

Earlier this week, the Italian government declared a state of emergency in five regions because of a drought caused by lack of rain and rising temperatures. To help the regions that have been especially hard hit, Italy is sending $37.5 million in relief funds distributed to several regions, including Emilia-Romagna, where Bologna is located.

IRON MAIDEN is continuing to tour in support of its latest album, "Senjutsu", which came out in September. It marks MAIDEN's second consecutive double album behind 2015's "The Book Of Souls" which is the longest MAIDEN album, with a running time of 92 minutes.

Prior to the "Legacy Of The Beast" kick-off concert on May 22 in Zagreb, Croatia, IRON MAIDEN hadn't performed live in two and a half years — since the completion of its South American tour in October 2019.

IRON MAIDEN's first album in six years, "Senjutsu" was recorded in 2019 in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by bassist Steve Harris. It features three tracks whose running time exceeds 10 minutes each.

For "Senjutsu" — loosely translated as "tactics and strategy" — the band once again enlisted the services of Mark Wilkinson to create the spectacular Samurai-themed cover artwork, based on an idea by Harris.

"Senjutsu" bowed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, charting higher than even the band's early classics like "Powerslave" and "The Number Of The Beast". Nearly 90 percent of the LP's 64,000 equivalent album units earned came from pure album sales. The critically acclaimed double album debuted one place higher than 2015's "The Book Of Souls" and 2010's "The Final Frontier", which both peaked at No. 4.

"Senjutsu" was MAIDEN's 13th album to top in the Top 40 in the U.S.

According to Billboard, "Senjutsu" logged the second-largest week of 2021 for a hard rock album in both equivalent album units earned and in traditional album sales.

"Senjutsu" topped the charts in several European countries upon its release, including in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland.