A day-long outdoor music festival on Portland’s Eastern Promenade featuring critically acclaimed British band Mumford & Sons was officially announced today.

Tickets for the Aug. 4 festival – one of just four shows Mumford & Sons are doing in the United States this year – are $69 and will go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, only at Gentlemenoftheroad.com.

A limited number of early bird tickets, for $59, will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Portland was picked as one of four U.S. sites for the band’s “Gentlemen of the Road Stopovers” out of hundreds of towns and cities that were considered.

Band member Winston Marshall told The Press Herald that Portland was one of the lucky few places picked because of its setting on the ocean, its vibrant arts and music scene, and the fact that the guys in Mumford & Sons had never been here before.

“We wanted places we had never been before, and places where we could sort of take over a town and get all sorts of local places involved,” said Winston, 24. “It’s not just about seeing the few bands at the festival, it’s about learning about the town and hopefully everybody going into the bars and pubs afterwards.”

The other cities hosting this tour – all relatively small places – include Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee; Dixon, Illinois; and Monterey, California.

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The Portland City Council approved the show in April, when the idea was proposed by local promoter Lauren Wayne, general manager of the State Theatre. But today was the day the show – and the other three U.S. shows – were formally announced by the band, along with ticket information. Wayne said today that all tickets will be general admission. There will be no fixed seating and no chairs allowed in, so people will have to stand or sit on blankets on the hillside.

Gates to the site will open at noon and the event is scheduled to end by 9 p.m. Music will start at 2 p.m.

Wayne told the city council she expects more than 12,000 people for the festival. The other touring acts who’ll be performing at the festival include St. Vincent, Dawes, The Maccabees, Apache Relay, Simone Felice, and Haim.

Also, Wayne said the entire concert site in the Eastern Promenade park – between the water and the Eastern Promenade roadway – will be secured by high fencing. So people will not be able to see the stage – which will be about halfway down the hill toward the water – from outside the fence.

Much of the logistics of the show are still being planned, Wayne said, including local merchant involvement, food and beverage vendors on site, and parking.

But Wayne did say that the Narrow Gauge Railroad has been rented for the day by promoters, so that people can park in the Old Port and take the train form Commercial and India streets to the base of the Eastern Promenade park.

Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at:
rrouthier@pressherald.com


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