Mumford & Sons played to a sold out crowd at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Tuesday, August 28, 2012 to kick off their two night stand at the historic Colorado venue. Seth A. McConnell, heyreverb.com
Mumford & Sons will headline a two-day, one-time music festival in Salida, Colo., the band announced Monday morning. The festival is part of the band’s series of moving music festivals called Gentlemen of the Road Stopovers, which will also be held in four other locations this year.
On Aug. 21-22 the Colorado Gentlemen of the Road Stopover will also bring the Flaming Lips, Dawes, Jenny Lewis, the Vaccines, TuneYards and others.
“The Gentlemen of the Road Stopovers are all about live music,” Mumford & Sons said in a news release. “We get to put them on in towns not normally frequented by touring bands in busses 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.”
The band also held Gentlemen of the Road Stopovers in 2012 and 2013.
Since first proposed last fall, festival organizer Madison House Presents has hosted public meetings and finalized a contract with the Salida City Council. Organizers expect the event to bring in 35,000 concertgoers to town — a number more than twice the size of the population of Chaffee County.
“It’s just hard for us to imagine something of this size,” Salida city administrator Dara MacDonald told the Denver Post last week. “There is no comparison. This is hands down the biggest event to ever come to Chaffee County.”
Yet some community members are not on board with the music festival.
An online petition by residents urges locals to help stop the festival, arguing that the crowds at the Vandaveer property will damage riparian habitat and the noise will impact residents.
The city has offered most of its Vandaveer Ranch property as a location for the festival.
Madison House is paying the town about $10,000 to use the land, $1 for every ticket sold and about $63,000 to cover city services from police and fire to code enforcement. The organizer has promised to reseed and repair the property after the festival.
Other festivals with varying lineups will be held in Seaside Heights, New Jersey; Waverly, Iowa; Aviemore, Scotland and Walla Walla, Washington.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on March 6.
Gentlemen of the Road Stopover Colorado lineup:
Mumford & Sons
The Flaming Lips
Dawes
Jenny Lewis
The Vaccines
TuneYards
James Vincent McMorrow
JEFF The Brotherhood
Blake Mills
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