Iron Maiden has just announced that they will headline Download 2013 at Donington Park. This marks the 25th anniversary for their first Donington headline.

Read the official statement here.

With this annoucement, it’s pretty much given that we won’t see a plane leg at the beginning of next year. We speculated earlier on that Maiden would give the market in the southern hemisphere a rest for a little while, and with this build up to the European summer tour it would be odd to setup a winter tour at this stage.

Nice remake!

So where do you reckon they will play this summer? I’d say it’s very likely that Download will be the only UK gig. As for the rest of Europe Rock am Ring, Rock Im Park are strong German candidates. The new Friends arena in Stockholm should be a spectacular event. It’s been a few years since they last played Graspop, so that one could bode for a return.  Stadium gig in Paris or a return to Sonisphere or another double at Bercy?

We will know very soon, indeed. In the meantime we will post rumours and speculate like crazy.

The charge begins.