Mumford & Sons

Valeria and Corrado are the best. As an early birthday present, they got me a ticket to Mumford and Sons who were playing in Ancona. The concert was held in the Piazza del Plebiscito and was already sold out by the time they had heard about it, but Valeria had a friend who was part of the organization that put the concert on. Her friend didn’t have tickets, but she gave Valeria some information where a secret stash was hidden in a store that would go on sale the next day. So Corrado with his achey legs and all rushed off the next morning to grab a few tickets.

And we were set! The square where they held the concert was quite beautiful, and the actual area they fenced off was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Which was great because that meant we could see them up close! It was SO hot when we got there, and the front of the stage was actually lower than the back area so it felt like we were just standing in this humid pocket of heat. Behind us was a giant statue of the Pope…we thought that was pretty funny. Marcus Mumford even made a comment about it. They had never played in front of a church or a statue of The Pope before.

After seeing them live, I love them even more. They were amazing. Poor Marcus had broken his hand so there was another guy playing guitar for him to the side of the stage. But he still rocked it and I imagine it was probably frustrating for him not to be able to play. he did manage one acoustic song with the two fingers I think he had available. But his voice…my lord it is beautiful. I could listen to him everyday.

Besides the music, the strange thing that really stood out to me was how respectful the crowd was. I’ve given up on large outdoor concerts because of all the drunk abnoxious teenagers. But nobody shoved, everyone got excited at the appropriate parts of the song, and they were all so into the music. It was crazy strange. I was hoping it was an Italian thing but Giovanni assured me that was a unique experience. He said they’re normally just as annoying as in the states. So oh well. It was amazing.

What a gloriously sweaty evening. By the end of the show we had made our way to less than 25 feet from the stage. Shooting with my 50 mm was frustrating for sure, not being able to zoom in or anything, but I was busy rocking out anyway. Special thanks to Valeria and Corrado for starting my birthday off great!