THE MINDS OF 99 – Parken 11.09.2021 – Photo Essay

THE MINDS OF 99. The biggest band in Denmark. The best live band in Denmark. 52000 people. Largest concert in Europe since the pandemic. Reopening Denmark the day after all corona restrictions were lifted. The Minds of 99 made history on 11.09.2021.

It actually happened….but wait… are you on a phone? Do me a huge favour and grab a laptop or tablet, anything with a bigger screen. This is a bigger than life widescreen show and pictures and deserves a bigger screen than your phone. Thank you.

It actually happened. I look at these pictures with almost disbelief and get emotional. Announced in November 2019 for a September 2020 date, postponed an entire year due to corona and only in June 2021 was the show given the final go ahead from our government. Denmark’s best crew had 3 months to prepare a stadium sized show. 52000 people gathered on 11.09.2021 to celebrate The Minds of 99‘s music, life, a new beginning, a reopening. The concert took on a whole new meaning, something larger than the band, something we will remember forever.

I still cannot find the words to describe what it was like to photograph, to be there, to experience it, be part of the crew. Magical, challenging, emotional, my largest and best gig ever, and so much more and just…everything. From the moment the crowd entered at around 6pm till the show ended I was just so emotionally overwhelmed, goosebumps, crying happy tears at times, running through the plan in my head.

I had the pleasure of running a phototeam with two of Denmark’s best photographers on my team, Morten Rygaard and Malthe Ivarsson, and an article about this is coming (EDIT: See our combined photo essay here!). Thank you to Morten and Malthe for outstanding work! During the rehearsals in the weeks leading up to the show, I made a production plan, noting where each of us would need to be for each song (stage, pit, front-of-house, in the back, up the sides etc.) so we could cover all the action from different angles as moving around amongst 52000 people was incredibly difficult.

I am telling you this because it means we each have a piece of the puzzle, the concert was a huge ‘monster’ we attacked from different angles. I was on stage, and always close to the band and especially lead singer Niels Brandt, following him to the B and C stage. Malthe was in the pit a lot and Morten was way in the back up in the upper grandstand. I will do an article soon with a combined gallery from the entire team. For now, here are about 70 pictures from me. It is not at all a complete view of the historical event, but it is the concert from my viewpoint.

If ever there was a show that deserves fullwidth panoramic views, it is this one so I developed special panoramic versions of my pictures optimized for this article. Thank you for loading this on a bigger screen (you are on a big screen right?), now play some Minds music and I hope you enjoy my visual story from the night.

The Minds of 99 x Parken – photo essay by Flemming Bo Jensen

Shot with FUJIFILM GFX100S with GF23mm, X-T3 with XF16-55mm, X-T30 with Samyang 8mm

“If you build it, they will come”. Day and night the crews worked to build this in 2 days.
Two hours to go and the stadium is buzzing, the atmosphere is electric
Walking to the stage.
The buzzing from the crowd as we stood behind the stage was unlike anything I have ever heard, so loud, so full of anticipation and joy. Søren the tour manager keeps everyone smiling and loose minutes before show time.
And this magical view awaited the band on stage. Look at this incredible show of love and excitement, and the show has not even started yet!
Solkongen – Niels takes to the air in his basket ‘spaceship’ in the middle of the stadium as the crowd goes crazy
Anders is ready!
Louis is ready!
Jacob is ready!
Asger is ready!
“Parkennnnnnnnnnnnnn!” – Niels made it back to the stage and Ung Kniv blows the roof off
Let me hear you! I think this could be heard all over Denmark. I was in tears here.
Straight at the camera! That rarely happens, I am glad I caught this powerful moment
Larger than life stage!
Barn af min tid
Parrrkennnn! I might be including a few too many of these shots but…that view when the crowd was lit was just so magical, so overwhelming.
‘Hjertet Følger Med’ and I ran around the crowd all the way to front-of-house to capture this grand almost otherworldly view. BIG stage!
Jacob’s keyboard solo and scissor lift takeoff in ‘Hjertet Følger Med’ is a peak moment everyone loves!
‘Hjertet følger med’ in full aciiiied peak
‘Som Fluer’ has become a huge live song. Just magical.
Jacob’s view – fortunately I have long arms! Also I am standing on steps built into the podium on the backside.
Louis though is up so high, my arms are not long enough to capture his grand view. I need my own scissor lift behind him!
‘Som Fluer’ has already become a classic, it is an incredible song and works so well live.
The entire stage looked epic from the back, I used a fisheye to capture all of it
Niels Brandt in complete command of the entire stadium
‘En Engel’ on the catwalk played to a sea of wonderful people
Finally again feeling the power of music, close together, being incredibly socially close!
Security carving a route through the super excited fans, on our way to the tiny B stage.
B stage in the middle of the crowd and everyone loves it. It was incredible to go from the huge main stage to suddenly being low and so close
It was just pure…I don’t have the word. So incredible to feel the love and joy.
Niels Brandt and nice for me to get such an intimate shot in such an epic setting
Asger in Big City, Bright Lights
Niels in Big City, Bright Lights
Drømmer om Livet – the stage view with this cool part where Niels sings straight into the camera meaning straight at the crowd via the 15 meter tall screens
Parkennnn!!!! During Drømmer of Livet when the kickdrum rocks the house, strobe lights hits the entire stadium like a giant flash!
Louis drum solo and scissor lift part of Drømmer om Livet. Malthe has great pictures of this from front-of-house, this is the side view as I wait for Niels and crew
Because we are on a mission to get to the C stage at the back of Parken via this secret tunnel
Via another security guard ‘train’ that took us through the huge crowd, we made it. Hello C stage and the back of the stadium!
Niels plays ‘Hurtige Hænder’ in the popular acoustic version.
Asger, Anders and Jacob joins Niels for ‘Emil’. It was hard to fit everyone in frame for me, so it is not a great picture, but want to show you what it looked like up close.
During a brief intermission we sprint back to the stage via the tunnels and the band is ready for…
1…2…3…4. I love and always aim to get the entire band in one shot during the show but in Parken it was impossible, this is the only picture I have from the stage with all 5.
Anders in I’m Gonna Die. Spot Asger way over on his catwalk.
Niels in I’m Gonna Die and the crowd is just non-stop going crazy
I’m Gonna Die I’m Gonna Die I’m Gonna Die I’m Gonna Dieeeeeeeeeee!
Stor som en Sol and a great rare moment I knew was coming where Niels, Anders and Asger interact on stage
We see you! That insane view of the stadium and the fans.
The intro to Knud featured pyro on stage
Det er Knud som er Død, the classic that in many ways kickstarted it all many years ago
Knud song kicking it off and Niels kicking away the mike stand, a powerhouse of energy all night
Stjerner på Himlen – stars in the sky – looked incredible
K Før Ærlighed!
En Stemme from front-of-house
‘En Stemme’ is incredible and the 303 acid part with Jacob got the epic treatment, played it on the B stage while a giant discoball was lowered from the ceiling
Let’s RAVE!
Alle Skuffer over tid – and notice Anders and Asger on their catwalks and just how huge and wide the stage was!
Anders playing the epic guitar solo in Alle Skuffer over Tid and I do believe he is standing on the shoulders of people here!
Anders ‘EPIC’ Folke Larsen !
I get goosebumps just making this blog post and looking back on this unique monumental show that happened one week ago.
Thank you Parken! It was almost 2 hours but went by so fast so incredibly fast.
Mega group hug with 4/5 of the band in there + manager + soundtech + tourmanager smiling in the background. They made the impossible possible and it was a perfect concert, just pure perfection.

§

There are so many people to thank for this, I am so grateful to have been part of and getting to experience this project up close for weeks. Thank you to the amazing band, amazing crew, my phototeam, Live Nation, staff at Parken, every single person who played a part. I heard that 2000 people were at work in Parken on this evening to make sure 52000 people had the concert of their lifetime.

EDIT: Now go see the combined photoessay from the whole phototeam, click here!

I will end with a picture of me at work during the rehearsal, made by teammate and good friend Malthe Ivarsson.

Me, during rehearsals. Photo by Malthe Ivarsson

§

17 Comments on “THE MINDS OF 99 – Parken 11.09.2021 – Photo Essay”

  1. Crazy beautiful photos.
    Blew my mind.

    Thank you for sharing these incredible photos
    Hope one day we will see those photos in an exhibition.

  2. Amazing giver mig kuldegysninger igen

    For jeg stod jo lige dernede i den forreste crowd.
    En fuldstændig magisk oplevelser på så mange måder.
    SÅ fede fotos sender mig lige tilbage igen
    1000 tak for det

    1. Tusind tak Tina, at mine billeder kan give jer fans der stod der et trip tilbage og genkalde følelserne, det er den bedste kompliment jeg kan få overhovedet!

      Og nej, så godt noget video på Instagram af Emil og den oppustelige racerbil – men nej, til Emil stod jeg jo helt nede på C scenen, nede i den anden ende af Parken 🙂

  3. Hov har du forresten fotos af de helt oppe foran der kørte i racerbil under sangen “Emil”?

    1. Tak det er jeg vildt glad for at du synes! Og se med når jeg laver en post med et galleri fra hele mit fototeam, så får vi pitten og tribunerne med, der var jeg af gode grunde ikke.

  4. Jeg var temmelig fuld og i fuldstændig ekstase under showet, så selvom at jeg intet fortryder og oplevelsen var den bedste nogensinde, så er jeg yderst taknemmelig for denne meget smukke, vanvittige og professionelle foto gennemgang!
    Du har virkelig gjort et fremragende stykke arbejde – af hjertet tak!

    1. Tusind tak! Fuldstændig ekstase lyder da helt perfekt 🙂 Det er jo blandt andet derfor jeg tager billeder, så i bagefter kan gense showet og se en masse vinkler i ikke ser nede foran. Tusind tak igen, det er er jeg virkelig glad for at høre!

  5. wow! great pictures!! an incredible atmosphere over there 🙂
    just wondering: what’s about covid? no social distancing? masks?? where all people vaccinated or with green pass?? just wondering, because it seams to be in another planet

    1. Thank you so much! And yes, this really is pretty much on a different planet. I think Denmark is one of the first country in the world to have dropped all restrictions, life is back to normal pretty much! This is due to very high vaccination rates, very high daily testing rates etc. Vaccination and constant testing really is the key factor in beating this.

  6. Nu fik jeg endelig set dine billeder, Flemming. På mit 75” tv i stuen. Det er så fedt! Elsker historien og billederne – og glæder mig til vi ses igen

I'd love to hear your comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.