AC/DC Shook Prague to Its Core with a Raucous “Whole Lotta Rosie” at Letňany 2025

The sun had barely begun its slow summer descent on June 26, 2025, when waves of black-shirted rock devotees flooded Prague’s Letňany Airport for the opening European date of AC/DC’s Power Up tour. The massive open-air field—flanked by speaker towers, a wall of Marshall stacks, and searing spotlights—was primed for 120 minutes of high-voltage history, and the roar that greeted the first crunchy chords of the night set the tone for what would soon become a benchmark Prague concert memory.

Estimates pegged the gathering at close to the venue’s 80,000-person limit, placing the 2025 crowd among the largest Letňany has hosted since Ed Sheeran’s record draw in 2018 and comfortably eclipsing the 60,000 die-hards who witnessed AC/DC’s previous Czech stop in 2016. Metro line C trains ran packed all afternoon, and pop-up beer huts did brisk business as fans from Poland, Austria, and Germany mingled with locals, comparing decades of tour shirts under a baking Bohemian sky.

While the entire set crackled, the night’s undeniable apex arrived when the band launched into “Whole Lotta Rosie,” that swaggering 1977 tribute to a larger-than-life Tasmanian muse popularized on the Let There Be Rock LP. Longtime followers know the tune as AC/DC’s rhythm ‘n’ blues roots turbo-charged to jet speed—riffing so infectious that even first-time listeners find themselves chanting the chorus before the final note fades.

Positioned nineteenth in a twenty-four-song marathon, “Rosie” emerged after the crowd had already burned itself hoarse on “You Shook Me All Night Long,” and yet the energy surged once more as Angus Young peeled off that razor-edged intro on his well-worn SG. The placement was perfect: late enough in the set to feel like a victory lap, but early enough to leave room for an encore volley of “T.N.T.” and the cannon blasts of “For Those About to Rock.”

Seconds into the first verse, a forty-foot inflatable Rosie inflated behind the drum riser, cigarette in hand, hips cocked with irreverent swagger. The prop has been a running gag since the Eighties, but in Prague—among a sea of cell-phone flashlights—it looked almost new, bathed in digital-mapping lights that rippled across her polka-dot dress. Fans up front swore they felt the ground tremble as tens of thousands jumped in unison the moment Brian Johnson shouted, “She ain’t exactly pretty, ain’t exactly small!”

Johnson himself was the night’s miracle. Nine years removed from the hearing-loss scare that temporarily sidelined him, he prowled the catwalk with renewed swagger, hammering every rough-edged vowel while cupping a hand over one in-ear monitor as if daring fate to try silencing him again. His trademark cap never left his head, but more than one fan noticed he ditched the usual black T-shirt for a tour-issue sleeveless vest—perhaps a nod to the unseasonably hot Prague evening.

Angus Young, for his part, delivered a clinic worthy of the Setlist.fm feature that recently crowned five of his 2025 solos essential viewing. Duck-walking from the main stage to a runway that sliced the crowd in two, he paused mid-song to wring feedback from his SG, drawing cheers that almost drowned out the PA. At seventy, his schoolboy shtick should feel kitsch, yet somehow it remains pure rock theatre, equal parts athleticism and mischief.

Each of those antics rested on the granite foundation laid down by the current rhythm section: nephew Stevie Young on rhythm guitar, former Jane’s Addiction bassist Chris Chaney, and session ace Matt Laug behind the kit, whose crisp snare shots kept Johnson locked in the pocket all night. Their inclusion on the 2025 run was widely publicized and, judging from the airtight grooves in Prague, entirely justified.

Before AC/DC even struck their first chord, fans had been primed by The Pretty Reckless, whose hard-hitting set helped warm up the runway-length stage. The New York outfit’s gritty “Heaven Knows” turned a portion of the field into a dust-clouded mosh, reaffirming why they have become the tour’s go-to opener on both sides of the Atlantic.

Letňany itself is tailor-made for spectacles of this magnitude. A repurposed grass airfield on Prague’s northern fringe, the site boasts multiple exits, endless sightlines, and, crucially for guitar heroes like Angus, enough backstage space to land equipment trucks side-by-side. Its history with rock giants stretches back decades, yet each new super-show forces city transit planners to refine crowd-dispersal drills, and 2025’s AC/DC onslaught provided as rigorous a stress test as any.

Veteran Prague concertgoers couldn’t help comparing 2025’s frenzy with AC/DC’s 2016 visit, remembered for record-breaking turnout and an electrical storm that hovered menacingly overhead. No lightning threatened this time, but the sonic thunder rolling off the stage during “Rosie” served as a spiritual sequel, reminding long-time fans why they gladly queue for hours whenever the Aussies hit town.

Beyond the Czech capital, the show also signaled the formal start of AC/DC’s second consecutive European summer sprint—a thirty-year-old touring model many believed unsustainable until the band proved otherwise during 2024’s stateside leg. Prague thus became chapter one in a new continental saga that will snake through Berlin, Warsaw, Madrid, Tallinn, and Edinburgh before the final power chord decays.

Lyrically, “Whole Lotta Rosie” still courts controversy in 2025, yet its blunt celebration of lived-in passion sparked joyous call-and-response chants from fans who had no trouble embracing its unapologetic attitude. The tune’s closing cymbal chokes and Angus’s whammy-bar wiggle felt timeless, a flashback to Bon Scott swagger delivered through Johnson’s grin.

Even after the inflatable Rosie deflated and crew members scrambled to prep cannons for “For Those About to Rock,” echoes of the performance lingered in the night air. Families posed for selfies under floodlights, elder fans swapped stories of Hammersmith ’79 or Donington ’91, and younger followers glowed at having finally witnessed a song whose legend once seemed larger than life.

If Prague’s show proved anything, it’s that AC/DC have become their own perpetual-motion machine: albums may slow, but the road keeps calling, and tunes like “Whole Lotta Rosie” guarantee the crowds will answer. Long after buses whisked the faithful back toward the city, that four-chord riff reverberated across social feeds and late-night trams, a reminder that some rock anthems don’t just endure—they grow louder with every passing year.