A certain type of music fan is characterized by a certain level of stubbornness; they are the ones who wait for a London folk-rock band to perform on a stage that no one is completely certain will be safe to enter while standing in a parking lot with a tornado watch in effect and rain seeping through their jacket. On Thursday night, June 11, Mumford & Sons and a few tens of thousands of incredibly patient Chicagoans engaged in a slow-motion waiting game with one of the worst storm systems to hit the region this year at Wrigley Field.
Before Chicago entered the picture, the Prizefighter Tour was operating smoothly throughout North America. However, the city had other plans. The National Weather Service extended a tornado watch to 51 Illinois counties, including Cook, by midafternoon. Weather officials warned of tennis-ball-sized hail, wind gusts exceeding 80 mph, and the potential for several tornadoes. At 2:30 PM, the venue released its first official statement, which was a vague assurance that organizers were keeping an eye on the situation. On social media, fans who had spent hours driving, made hotel reservations, and set up childcare were hoping for something more conclusive, so that didn’t go over too well.
The gates that were scheduled to open at 5 PM were moved to 8:30. The opening acts for the evening, Caamp and Dylan Gossett, were completely removed from the schedule. It’s difficult not to feel sorry for those two acts in particular; neither of them cancelled anything; instead, a weather system that didn’t care about anyone’s tour schedule simply erased them from the evening’s schedule. Cook County was still officially under a tornado warning when spectators began to arrive at Wrigley sometime after 8:30 PM. Over the skyline, lightning could be seen. Somehow, the atmosphere remained joyous, or at least defiantly so.
This is a quiet source of pride for Wrigley. Even when Pearl Jam and Billy Joel performed in bad weather, the venue has never completely canceled a show due to bad weather in more than 20 years of concerts. Many seemed to be wondering Thursday night whether that record is worth keeping during a tornado warning, and to be honest, it’s a valid question. Rain-or-shine resilience and something more akin to recklessness are two different things, and it probably depends on who you ask where Thursday fell on that spectrum.
At around 10:43 p.m., Marcus Mumford emerged into a crowd that had been there for two, three, or even four hours. “Well, we made it to Chicago,” he remarked as he looked around the field. “It’s unbelievable that everyone is in. This is crazy. He might have meant that literally. Babel, Little Lion Man, Hopeless Wanderer, and other songs from the band’s catalog were included in the set list. Caamp made a brief guest appearance during the performance as a token of respect for what had been lost earlier in the evening. Deep into a Friday morning that most of the audience had not anticipated, the show ran until about 12:30 AM.
Your level of risk tolerance will determine whether or not the entire experience was a success. Most people said the music was very good. The band was rewarded by the crowd with the kind of enthusiasm that only results from group relief. However, even though the show ultimately went well, the communication breakdowns, the uncertainty surrounding the hours between 5 and 8:30 PM, and the choice to open the gates during an active tornado warning do not go away. Wrigley maintained its winning streak. It’s a whole other story whether or not it should have.
FAQs
1. Why was the Mumford & Sons Wrigley Field concert delayed?
Severe storms, including an active tornado watch, forced organizers to push back the show.
2. What time did Mumford & Sons actually take the stage?
They performed at 10:43 PM, nearly five hours after the original start time.
3. Did the opening acts perform at Wrigley Field that night?
No — Caamp and Dylan Gossett were both cut from the lineup entirely.
4. Has Wrigley Field ever canceled a concert due to weather?
In over 21 years of concerts, Wrigley has never outright canceled a show.
5. How late did the Mumford & Sons show run?
The concert finished around 12:30 AM on Friday.
