Mumford & Sons Announce 2013 ‘Stopovers’

Last spring, Mumford & Sons announced they’d be hosting a series of ‘Gentlemen of the Road Stopover…’ shows, mini-festivals in places not usually served by the touring circuit, featuring appearances from friends and invited artists. They hosted slots from the likes of Michael Kiwanuka and The Vaccines, and took over sites in Huddersfield and Galway.

Well, they’re back again, with plans for similar events both in the UK and North America this summer.

The UK event is set to take place on 19th and 20th July in Lewes, and will feature headline sets from Mumfords themselves as well as Vampire Weekend (who release new album ‘Modern Vampires of the City’ this May, of course), as well as sets from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, The Vaccines, Mystery Jets, Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit - with more to be confirmed.

The band explain more… “As Pep Guardiola would probably say, keeping possession of the ball is Rules One, Two and Three of football. As Mumford & Sons would definitely say, Rules One, Two and Three of being a band are: Play Live.

“The Gentlemen of the Road Stopovers are all about live music. We get to put them on in towns not normally frequented by touring bands in buses or splitter vans. We deliberately look for towns that have something unique, or some vibe of which they are proud, explore them and enjoy what they have to offer, and then we try to bring a party without leaving too much of a trail of destruction in our wake.

“It’s a real privilege that being in Mumford & Sons has allowed us to be able to shine a light on these towns, places that sometimes don’t get the love they deserve, and to be the facilitators of great musical coming-togethers. We actually get to put on our own shows. Which means that we get to ask our favourite bands to come and play a show with us, where we just get to watch them play all day. Five times in one summer too. Badass.

“But there’s another rule that applies to both football and music. Doing the Stopovers means that we get to invite a whole bunch of other people to watch these bands with us. And that, the shared experience, is basically all that live music is about.

We’re really excited to be doing more Stopovers and we can’t wait to see as many of you as possible this summer! M, W, B & T”

Further Stopovers will take place from late summer in Canada and the USA, with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros along for all four. Other artists due to take part include Alabama Shakes, fun., Dan Mangan and Willy Mason.

The dates for those are:

AUGUST
23/24 Simcoe, Canada
30/31 Troy, Ohio

SEPTEMBER
6/7 Guthrie, Oklahoma
13/14 St Augustine, Florida

All the info on the events can be found at gentlemenoftheroad.com