Metallica have not played Cardiff for thirty years. They made up for lost time in spectacular fashion, turning Principality Stadium into the largest live music event Wales has ever staged.
The American thrash metal giants brought their M72 World Tour to the Welsh capital for the first time, drawing 76,000 fans for a show that broke records on every front. It was the band’s long awaited Principality Stadium debut, and their first appearance in the city since 1996.
Staged in the round, with the stage built into the centre of the pitch rather than at one end, the production gave fans a 360 degree view of the band from every seat in the house. It is a format Metallica have used to great effect across the M72 tour, and Cardiff got the full, room shaking experience.
It was not quite the 1.6 million who are said to have turned out to see the band play Moscow back in 1991, in one of the biggest concerts ever staged anywhere in the world. But the Welsh and wider UK fans who packed Principality Stadium were every bit as loud, and the attendance figure alone still makes history closer to home.
It is the highest number of people ever to watch a concert at Principality Stadium, beating the previous record set by Ed Sheeran in 2022, and the biggest live music crowd Wales has ever seen for a single event.
Thirty years in the making
For long time fans, the wait was the story. Metallica last played Cardiff in 1996, long before the M72 World Tour’s in the round staging, no support act format and marathon two night set lists became the band’s signature. Welsh fans who had followed the band across England, or further afield, for three decades finally got the home show they had been waiting for.
The in the round staging meant nobody in Principality Stadium was watching the band’s backs for long. With the stage built into the centre of the pitch, the show rotated around the crowd, giving every block of seats its turn at being right in front of James Hetfield and company.
Giving blood rocks
The tour’s visit also did some good off stage. To mark the stop in Cardiff, the Welsh Blood Service ran dedicated donation sessions across Wales from 22 June to 3 July, the week either side of the concert, encouraging fans and the wider public alike to roll up a sleeve in the band’s honour.
Thirty years is a long time to wait. On this evidence, it will not take Metallica another thirty to come back.
Photo credit: Gareth Everett/Principality Stadium
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