"The news from Bogota is wildly exaggerated," says Smallwood. "We are now in beautiful Quito for a show tomorrow. Everyone is just fine. The 'riots' were basically a lot of kids trying to break into the Simon Bolivar Park to see the show and the park has a big perimeter to protect. There is a large military presence for all concerts in Bogota as can be seen in our forthcoming movie Flight 666. However in the last 13 months we have played 2 fantastic concerts there to over 75,000 passionate fans at this same venue, Simon Bolivar Park. Neither performance was at all affected by the incidents of people outside trying to break in. None of the enjoyment of the show or safety of the band or our audiences was at all compromised.

We abhor the inane behaviour of a small minority of people outside. They do Iron Maiden, Metal and the real Colombian fans a disservice and sadly just provide a reason for the military to feel they need to be there. - more on this story

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