Metallica performed at Tushino Airfield during the 1991 Monsters of Rock concert linked to The Black Album era.
The concert took place in Moscow on September 28, 1991, near the beginning of the album’s worldwide breakthrough. It was part of the Monsters of Rock festival tour, which also featured other major rock and metal acts. The event became historically significant because it was described as the first free outdoor Western rock concert in Soviet history.
Crowd estimates vary substantially. Contemporary and later accounts commonly place attendance between 150,000 and 500,000 people, while some unofficial estimates reached as high as 1.6 million. The differing numbers reflect the difficulty of counting a vast, open-air audience rather than disagreement about the venue.
Tushino Airfield is sometimes confused with Moscow’s major airports or with Luzhniki Stadium, another famous concert location. The Monsters of Rock event was held at Tushino, an airfield northwest of central Moscow.