2026 has been a massive year for The Minds of 99. First, the incredible Arena Tour in March/April with 6 sold out shows and then followed by 4 headliner Summer festival gigs. Oh and 2 new great single releases! I really like these festival band gigs, there is a nice road trip with the crew followed by some good hours of hanging out with other bands and crew backstage before the concert. Then the roughly 90 minutes change-over, excitement building before the show. I mostly spend all this time on stage, soaking it all in. It is not going to last forever, these are special days, I try and saviour them as much as I can. It is all even better when the weather is decent and unlike the rainy 2025 shows, we had 4 gigs this year with perfect weather! Thank you weather gods. The 4 shows were all absolutely fantastic, and featured an entirely new stage and light design with a motor controlled platforms and light trusses on stage, so the layout of everything could change for every song. It looked fantastic and was a nice new challenge to not only document but also learn the choreography so I can get some shots but not get in the way of all the moving parts.
It was incredible to be part of this tour working alongside the very best in the business. Massive thank you to the band, management, crew and everyone involved in this great festival tour. Big hugs to all the incredible fans that made every gig really special, I hope you enjoy this look back at a great Summer. I sequenced the essay so the pictures somewhat follows the setlist, and it features my favourite pictures from all 4 festivals. What a fantastic MINDS year, and 2027 looks equally epic, see you out there.
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Photography
This tour was an interesting challenge to document, for more than half the show 2 or 3 of the platforms are flying many meters above the stage – and as much as I tried, I couldn’t seem to fly with them! It meant getting pictures from a distance is even more important than normal, because from the stage or pit I am just shooting straight up into the platforms. And getting pictures from the crowd is near impossible at headliner festival gigs with Minds, it would take me the whole show to get out there and back. So massive thanks to especially Mathias Engmark for helping me out at Heartlands and Smuk (and snapping a few pics of me in the process), and Nibe festival photographers Claus Søndberg and Vibeke Pedersen for extra shots from Nibe. At Rockbæk festival they fortunately have a massive pit with a direct path to FOH, so finally I could roam around and make big wide stage shots from a distance. Such a great way to end the tour. Bring on 2027!
Shot on two FUJIFILM X-T5 with XF16-55mm II, XF10-24mm, XF70-300mm lenses, more about my FUJIFILM gear here. If you are interested in how I prepare for concerts like these, check out my extensive How I Prepare For A Concert article.
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