6 sold out arena shows; 100,000 fans; a completely new massive production; 5 new songs on the setlist – THE MINDS OF 99 Arena Tour in March and April 2026 was yet another massive high for Denmark’s biggest and best live band!
This is my favourite MINDS tour so far! I know, I said that last year but they just keep getting better! My only request is that Denmark builds more large multi-arenas so the tour can hit more cities! The production design, the stage, the lights, the motorized lighting truss, the Star Wars level lasers, giant circular catwalk, everything was completely new. With a setlist featuring 3 (sometimes 4) unreleased songs and some old classics that had not been played live for many years (original Hurtige Hænder was insane) it felt new, a new era and different to last years festival tour and totally different to the Arena tour 4 years ago. I love that about MINDS and the team, always moving forward, pushing the boundaries. I think it took me a bit of time during production rehearsals to learn and ‘get’ this show and the structure of it, but I quickly ended up absolutely loving this show and had an fantastic time shooting and designing the SoMe still posts for the band after each show.
It was so fantastic to be part of this working alongside the very best in the business with everyone performing on an international mega tour level. Massive thank you to the band, management, crew and everyone involved in this fantastic tour! Big hugs to all the incredible fans that made every gig really special, it’s a real privilege to get to be so close to you in the pit and feel your love for the band and the songs. Extra big high five to my friend and video-jedi Mark Balstrup, the better half of our little MINDS SoMe team!
MINDS 2026 Arena Tour – The Photo Essay
I sequenced the essay so the pictures almost precisely follows the setlist, and it features my favourite pictures from all 6 shows combined, I hope you enjoy this look back at some really special days!
Photography
I still can’t quite believe that I get to work for Minds and document these incredible concerts. It is a huge privilige and dream come true. And it’s so much work, and so much fun! Having 6 shows is a fantastic opportunity and also obligation to explore the venues and make a different set of pictures every night. Actually 6 shows is not even enough to capture every song from all the good locations in a venue, stage, pit, balcony, foh, crowd, etc – but it still allows for a lot of takes on each song as my photo essay here hopefully shows. Every night I make a new ‘script’ for myself to ensure I do not end up making the same pictures every day. More about this in How I Prepare For A Band Gig. I also designed a new look and color grade for the SoMe posts and a bit like the show itself, we ended up with both a color and a black-and-white grade, different looks for different songs and ‘eras’, old and new.
Editing this essay and looking back on the pictures from the tour, I am happy with my work, there are a lot of pictures I really like and it’s some of the best work I have done. And there are also many things I want to improve for the next tour, it can always get better!
I always start a tour thinking “remember to shoot and film some bts stuff for myself” but it never happens! I completely forget about it and focus solely on the concert, so I just have a couple of phone snapshots:
The one downside to being part of these incredible Minds tours is the inevitable post-Minds-tour blues as there is just nothing like being in this incredible Minds-universe. But as they say, don’t be sad it’s over, be glad it happened and that the festival tour 2026 is only one month away. See you out there!
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