Gentleman of the Road: Lewes Stopover

Thanks to my beautiful, gorgeous, experienced, new born baby light bolt friend Christi, I knew that Mumford and Sons was going to be performing in England while I was here this summer. I asked around to the BYU kids to see if there were any other fans who wanted to go with me, but was prepared to go alone. Luckily, Anna and Chelsey were pumped to join me. With our powers combined we obtained three tickets, trains, and lodging near Brighton for our 3-day weekend in the south. The Gentleman of the Road is a festival put on by Mumford and Sons, and they have some of their favorite bands play over two days along with really good food (and beer obviously). We left Friday afternoon by train to London, then tubed over to another station for a train to Brighton. I have never been to Brighton, and it was close enough to Lewes, the little town hosting the festival, that it was convenient enough to stay near there in Saltdean. I had found a guy on Airbnb with space for three, so we met Trevellion Friday late afternoon. He had told us just the day before that his space heater and the gas for hot water broke... so there wasn't any hot water. But he did knock £20 off our price so we figured we'd rough it as we weren't going to be there much other than to sleep. He wasn't a creeper as it turned out, but was super nice and accommodating, even offered to take us the 11 miles or so to Lewes in his car the first evening. I think this was a good thing because it was super packed getting into the festival, via the wristband station, Friday night. The food tents were local places that had come to sell and they were really phenomenal.

The entrance to the festival! Gentleman of the Road, Lewes.

Amazing banana curry, roasted beans, and other good stuff.

Luckily the baby has headphones, so he can still enjoy the show.

The venue was a large field, so there was nice grass everywhere to sit on and lounge about eating and listening.

 Friday night's line up was several bands I didn't know too well including British Sea Power, White Denim, and the headliner for the evening, Vampire Weekend. We sat just off to the side on the grass most of the night, but stood up in the crowd during the last band. It was a pretty great evening, great energy, and good music. It made us even more excited for the next day. Saturday morning we decided to explore Brighton a little bit before the festival started again at 1pm. So we took a bus along the coast back to Brighton from Saltdean (where Trevellion lives, he had made us a really good breakfast of tea, toast, and eggs) to check out the famous Brighton Pier, and walked into the city a little before catching a 15 minute train to Lewes.

Brighton Pier

The beach!

The coastal highway just a block from where we stayed in Saltdean with our host.

Rocky beach. Quite comfortable actually.

On the pier.

Near the bus stop on the coastal highway, in Saltdean. About 10 minutes from Brighton.

Panorama of the pier with Chelsey.

The line up for Saturday started with a really adorable group of mountainy Englishmen appropriately named Bear's Den. They had a sort of folksy sound reminiscent of Mumford, but gentler. An American girl duo called Deap Vally actually sucked big time, they were "hard rock" I guess you could say, but they had a weird attitude that clashed with the rest of the vibe in many ways. Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit was good, Johnny echoing a Jared Leto look, and a better sound (than 3,000 miles to Mars or whatever Leto's band is called). They were followed by The Mystery Jets and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. The former were a bit forgettable, but Edward Sharpe, who I'd seen in Salt Lake at the Twilight Summer concert series, was really energizing. They totally got the crowd going, Edward, who normally seems totally high and wigged out stayed true to form, but came right into the crowd, which really jazzed the little buggers up front. Their set was solid though. The Vaccines were fun and young... and totally milking the 13-17 year old girls in the crowd.

All the tweens and teens enthralled with the Vaccines.

But FINALLY, after standing in a tight wad pack of other hot young people, Mumford and Sons started!!! And honestly, it was worth every pound, every minute of waiting. By far the greatest concert I have seen. Mainly because I love every aspect of their music. I also joined the queue of all women waiting for Marcus Mumford. Carey Mulligan is the luckiest girl ever. Fantastic show, can't wait to see them again live.

Me and Anna enjoying our new festival gear.

Marcus Mumford closing their set with the rest of the bands on stage. 

The next day we spent in London; Chelsey and I at lunch at Paul's in front of St. Paul's Cathedral! Perfect. Then we attended the Britannia ward, and afterwards ate crepes with Richard and Mariah who were there for a field trip. I was dozing off at every opportunity so we headed home after that. It was the last week of module one classes so we had to get back into all that studying, reading, and writing real quick. But totally all worth it... because of Mumford!