Where The Bands Are (Mumford and Sons 8 November 2025, Copenhagen)

On November 8th, Oliver and I went to Copenhagen to see Mumford & Sons at the Royal Arena. We had seen them once before, in Gothenburg back in 2019. After that tour, the band took a long hiatus and one of the founding members, Winston Marshall, left the band. Earlier this year the now trio released a new album, Rushmere. I wouldn’t call myself a big fan, but I was curious to see them again.

The stage setup was impressive. Above and slightly in front of it, a massive structure descended during certain songs. It was covered with glowing heart- and star-shaped lights. Behind the band, three large screens alternated between close-ups of each member, which I really appreciated since we had purposely chosen to stand farther back. We arrived in the middle of the second support act and didn’t want to squeeze in between people, so we stayed around the midline of the general admission area. From there it wasn’t as crowded and luckily the screens meant we could asee what was happening up front. Later, when the band moved to the smaller B stage, we were suddenly standing quite close.

Royal Arena itself is a modern multi-use venue in Copenhagen’s Ørestad, capable of holding up to around 16–17 000 spectators for concerts making it one of the city’s biggest indoor music stages. It opened in 2017 with Metallica and has since then hosted acts like Bruno Mars, Drake, U2, Madonna, Billie Eilish and many more as well as sporting events and international championships. Despite the size of the arena, the band managed to make their entrance feel close rather than distant.

Marcus Mumford, the lead singer, wore black trousers and a denim shirt, the top buttons casually undone. He seemed relaxed, but still very much in control of the stage. I was impressed by the band’s energy from the start and I quickly rediscovered how much I like the singer’s voice and their unique style, which is characterized by energetic acoustic instrumentation (especially banjo and acoustic guitar), their driving rhythms and soulful group vocals. They have kind of a ”quiet-loud” dynamics, starting the songs gently and then building to explosive crescendos.

When it’s not one of your favourite bands on stage, it’s easier to observe what’s happening around you and I enjoyed watching the audience reactions. The moment the band walked on, the whole arena responded and by the second song (Babel), people were on their feet, dancing and singing. They were mixing new songs with older favourites and kept the energy moving throughout the set.

The first half ended with “Truth”, one of the more rock-oriented songs from Rushmere. Around that point, Marcus Mumford briefly turned local, joking that he hoped the audience wasn’t too hungover after J-Day, the day Tuborg releases its Christmas beer and possibly the biggest drinking day of the year in Denmark. The stage was then flooded with pyrotechnics.

While the lights and effects drew everyone’s attention forward, the band quietly moved through the crowd to the smaller B stage in the middle of the general admission area. From there, they performed an acoustic set of ten songs. During Ditmas, Marcus Mumford ventured out in the crowd, making his way into the lower-bowl stands while still singing. Back at the microphone stand, the band later closed the main set with The Wolf, an upbeat song from their third album.

Timshel, which opened the encore, stood out in particular. The band gathered around a single microphone at the downstage edge and the song was sung a capella. It was simple but emotional. For a few minutes, it felt as if the entire arena went quiet, held its breath and listened. Soon after, the whole band returned for a few more songs, including the monster hit I Will Wait, which many had been waiting for. The evening closed with the melancholic ballad Conversation With My Son, again featuring beautiful harmonies.

To conclude, Mumford & Sons are a very good live act. They have the rare ability to maintain high energy even while performing slower, softer songs. Imagine a packed bar with a brilliant acoustic cover band on St. Patrick’s Day and you’ll get the idea. That mix of intensity, intimacy and power is exactly what they deliver.

I only knew a few songs beforehand (Rubber Band Man, Little Lion Man and I Will Wait) but that didn’t really matter. The acoustic section, performed from the smaller B stage in the middle of the GA area, was one of the highlights for me. Standing a bit further back then turned out to be a great choice, as we suddenly had a perfect view. The softer lighting and stripped-down sound worked beautifully, even if a few drunk Danish men next to us struggled to stay quiet. Eventually Oliver, sternly, told them to zip it, and it helped.

The more upbeat songs brought the tempo up and it then it was impossible not to move along. Apart from our noisy neighbours, the crowd was fully engaged. They were singing, clapping and contributing to an lively atmosphere.

While on the smaller stage, Marcus invited someone from the audience to help translate a small speech. During this, he asked where people in the crowd were from, and it turned out to be a very international audience, with Swedes in the majority, perhaps not so surprising given how close the Swedish city Malmö is, just across the bridge.

By the end of the night, I was more energised than I’d expected to be, so much so that I spontaneously stopped to buy a Mumford & Sons T-shirt on the way out even if had had said that I didn’n want any on the way in.

Getting home, however, turned into a bit of an adventure. As we stepped out of the Royal Arena, we were met by an overwhelming sea of Ubers and taxis. We had already decided to take the bus back to our airport hotel, so we ignored them and headed for the bus stop, a decision that, in hindsight, was not our wisest. The queue was enormous, most likely due to construction work on the train tracks. When we finally gave up and tried to book an Uber instead, they were either already taken or had surged in price because of the heavy demand. On top of that, we heard there were no more regular trains to Malmö at that time of night and judging by the number of Swedes in the audience, I suspect the Uber drivers did very good business ferrying people across the Öresund Bridge.

In the end, we took the subway one stop in the wrong direction, simply because the platform towards the city was too crowded. We got off at a completely deserted station, checked Uber once more and this time got lucky. A very friendly Tesla driver picked us up and Oliver spent the entire ride back to the hotel discussing electric cars with him, while I sat back, slightly amused, slightly tired, and very content after a really good concert night.