Gentlemen of the Road Music Festival
Wartburg College, Waverley, Iowa — Friday, June 19 through Saturday, June 20
With the help of three-time Grammy award winners Mumford and Sons, the small town of Waverly, Iowa, is expected to triple in size this weekend: Saturday, June 20, the five piece, folk-rock band will be headlining the Gentlemen of the Road Music Festival.
Originally from London, England, Mumford and Sons has gained great success in the U.S. Forming in 2007, the band recently completed their third album, Wilder Mind. Their most successful album, Babel, won the Album of the Year award at the 2013 Grammys.
That same year, Mumford and Sons launched Gentlemen of the Road, choosing five locations throughout the U.S. to hold the “stopover” festival. The band wanted to play to fans in a small but easily accessible setting, and Waverly made the list due to its attractive size of 10,000 residents. The lightly populated area will give fans an intimate concert with more legroom and better views.
“As soon as we started playing sports arenas,” Ted Dwane (the band’s bassist) recalled during a phone interview, The Star Tribune reports, “we thought how great it would be if we could instead play to 25,000 people in our own way — a way we can control it so there’s not all kinds of company branding around the show, and do it in a way that celebrates the community.”
According to The Des Moines Register, the festival expects around 35,000 attendees. Joining the lineup will be My Morning Jacket, The Flaming Lips, Jenny Lewis and a seven other bands.
The two-day festival will be held at Wartburg College Campus in Waverly, an hour-a-half northeast of Iowa City. Gates open at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, June 19. Tickets for both days of the festival include the camping fee and can be purchased online for $199.
