Mumford & Sons to headline first night of London, Ont.’s ‘Rock the Park’

The British folk rock group Mumford & Sons will perform at London’s ‘Rock the Park’ this summer, festival organizers announced on Tuesday.

The Grammy and Brit Award-winning group, comprised of Marcus Mumford, Ted Dwane, and Ben Lovett, will headline the festival’s first night on Wed. July 12 in Harris Park.

Organizers also revealed the rest of Wednesday’s line-up, with Vance Joy, Bahamas, and The Trews also set to hit the stage on Rock the Park’s first day, with Vance Joy as a direct support to Mumford & Sons.

The festival’s rock-oriented Wednesday and Saturday night shows are sponsored by FM96 which is owned by Corus Entertainment, Global News’ parent company.

“We’re absolutely thrilled… and to think that they’re only going to do six summer dates, festivals across North America, and we got one of them, I would say it’s a very proud moment for Rock the Park,” said Brad Jones, president of Jones Entertainment Group, the organization behind the festival.

“The response this morning has been absolutely overwhelming… The buzz is, you know, it’s probably twice what we’ve ever seen, and we’ve had sell-outs before with The Tragically Hip and Snoop Dogg and Journey and those types of things, but social media is just abuzz right now.”

The band’s Rock the Park performance will come on the heels of a recent tour by Mumford in support of his self-titled debut solo album, released in September.

Mumford & Sons’ most recent album was 2018’s Delta, produced by Paul Epworth. The album was the last to involve founding member Winston Marshall, who left the band in 2021.

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Formed in London in 2007, Mumford & Sons won the album of the year Grammy for their 2012 record Babel.

Other acts set to hit the Rock the Park stage this year include Ludacris, Ja Rule, Ashanti, Chingy, and Ying Yang Twins on Friday, July 14, and Billy Talent, Alexisonfire, Cypress Hill, Silverstein, and the Dirty Nil on Saturday, July 15.

Rock the Park’s Thursday line-up is expected to be unveiled soon, along with a sixth act for the penultimate time slot on Friday.

“People are anticipating a country night, and I don’t want to tip my hat to anything like that right now, but certainly there will be a fourth night rolled out here in the next couple of weeks,” Jones said.

“No breaking news right now, no contract signed, just lots of offers out and working through it. I don’t want to give anybody false hopes, but at the end of the day, we’re very excited. I can tell you that this, for sure, will be… it is already the best received Rock the Park we’ve had in 18 years.”

Tickets for the festival’s first day go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday.

More information about the festival can be found on the Rock the Park website.