As Mumford & Sons<\/a> announce their return to BST Hyde Park for 2026, the band caught up with NME<\/em> to tell us about plans for the huge show and finding themselves \u201cin their prime\u201d on new album \u2018Prizefighter\u2019. Check out our full interview and ticket details below.<\/p>\n Joining previously announced headliners Lewis Capaldi<\/a>, Pitbull<\/a> and Maroon 5<\/a>, the alt-folk veterans will take to the Great Oak Stage\u00a0 at BST Hyde Park on Saturday July 4, with support from The War On Drugs<\/a> and a full line-up to be announced. They\u2019ll be playing in support of their sixth studio album \u2018Prizefighter<\/a>\u2018 \u2013 which is due on Friday February 13, 2026 and features Hozier<\/a>, Gracie Abrams<\/a>, Chris Stapleton<\/a> and Gigi Perez<\/a>.<\/p>\n This will mark a decade since the band last headlined BST Hyde Park back in 2016. \u201cIt was one of my favourite shows ever, actually,\u201d Marcus Mumford recalled to NME<\/em>. \u201cWe\u2019ve been gagging to do it again when the time was right, and now\u2019s the time. Playing that place in our home town \u2013 it doesn\u2019t get much better than that.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re enjoying ourselves as a band more than we ever have. We have this sense of joy of being back. We\u2019re just enjoying it. It feels like a total pleasure at the moment and we have a total depth of gratitude for it. We just finished this European tour, which brings quite a big year to an end. We\u2019ll end up playing about 100 shows, which is quite like the old days for us. I\u2019m feeling more fired up than I have for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n Mumford added:\u00a0\u201cNext year is going to be a busy year for us, and we\u2019ve made this record that we\u2019re super proud of in \u2018Prizefighter\u2019. We\u2019re excited to show it to people, so next year just feels like the culmination of a couple of years work for us. It\u2019s been really prolific and fun again.\u201d<\/p>\n Check out our full interview with Mumford and keyboardist Ben Lovett below, where they told NME<\/em> about upping their game, their \u201chonest\u201d new album, working with The National\u2019<\/a>s Aaron Dessner<\/a>, and being \u201call fired up\u201d for the future.<\/p>\n NME<\/em>: Hello, Mumford & Sons! How do you mentally prepare for playing to 65,000 people at Hyde Park? How do you reach the people at the back?<\/strong><\/p>\n Ben Lovett:<\/strong> \u201cWe\u2019ve had an interesting cadence with our statement London shows as a band. You\u2019ll remember than in the aftermath of the London Olympics there was the Queen Elizabeth Park where we turfed what was basically a car park and played to 65,000 people there. We were still kids at that point and couldn\u2019t quite wrap our heads around that. We almost didn\u2019t want to believe it was happening. Not long after that we headlined Glastonbury 2023<\/a>, then Hyde Park a few years later was the biggest show yet. It was an incredible feeling of of communal shared experience.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s something we love as music fans. I\u2019ve been increasingly reminding people that when you\u2019re in a band, you\u2019re a music fan first and foremost. That\u2019s how you get into it. Marcus and I have spent many years, arms in the air, singing along to some of our favourite artists. That\u2019s what we want to provide: that moment in the centre of London with nostalgia from 15 years ago along with some of the new songs from \u2018Prizefighter\u2019. We want it to be the euphoria that we enjoy when we go to Hyde Park and Glastonbury.\u201d<\/p>\n Will you be rinsing your contact lists for special guests?<\/strong><\/p>\n Marcus Mumford:<\/strong> \u201cWe\u2019re always rinsing our contact list! What are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n You\u2019ve got The War On Drugs supporting you. That must make you up your game?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mumford:<\/strong> \u201cThey haven\u2019t played in London for a long time. They\u2019ve inspired so many records and they are a generation-defining band. I\u2019ve been down the wormhole watching their live performances recently. We last played with them at a festival in Montreal a couple of years ago. They were on amazing form. I was gutted that I missed that tour they did with Lucius and The National. Yeah man, I\u2019m going to be ecstatic to watch that.\u201d<\/p>\n Is there anything else you can tell us about the line-up?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mumford:<\/strong> \u201cNot at the moment, because it\u2019s a tightly-held secret \u2013 but Hyde Park are great because they always work with us on the line-up. Those are some of the most fun and creative conversations outside of making a record. It\u2019s sometimes brand new music or us introducing artists to one another. Putting these line-ups together is often how we discover new music. Then there are some of our favourite artists who join us, like The War On Drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n Tell us about \u2018Prizefighter\u2019 \u2013 where does it take the Mumford sound following on \u2018Rushmere\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mumford:<\/strong> \u201cI think it elevates it. All these things are subjective, we\u2019re probably the worst judges of this and most artists would say this about their most recent work, but I feel like we\u2019re in our prime and that we\u2019re writing the best songs we\u2019ve ever written. I don\u2019t say that about every record, and I really feel strongly about this one. \u2018Rushmere\u2019 was super helpful for us getting back in a room with Dave Cobb [producer] really holding out feet to the fire about who we are as artists and what we want to do.<\/p>\n \u201cWe spent time with Pharrell Williams<\/a> who really unlocked me as a writer; he really picked my lock and opened me up. Then it was just the perfect timing to walk into a room where Aaron Dessner just happened to be next door. We started showing each other demos we\u2019d been working on, and that started while we were mixing \u2018Rushmere\u2019. Suddenly we were starting another record and the songs just poured out in a way that they haven\u2019t since the first record. There was just this spirit of freedom, creativity, curiosity and trust amongst the three of us with Aaron as our producer.\u201d<\/p>\n That must have made for quite the breeding ground for songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n Marcus:<\/strong> \u201cThat provided really fertile ground for songs to just appear \u2013 and they really did just appear. In just 10 days, we\u2019d written more songs than we had in the last seven years combined. We didn\u2019t overthinking it, it was a really instinctive writing and recording process. There weren\u2019t loads of takes, there weren\u2019t thousands of rewrites. We just moved quite quickly, but in a way that we just trusted the process with Aaron. He helped us with the demos for the third record [\u2018Wilder Mind\u2019, 2015] and he\u2019s been a friend and supporter of ours for a long time. It just felt right.\u201d<\/p>\n Lovett:<\/strong> \u201cWe\u2019ve rediscovered some of that naivety and allure that artists have on their debut record where it\u2019s always exciting to hear something brand new from someone. To rediscover that naivety and lack of self-awareness is quite a true and fortunate place to be in. That a lack of concern for where it places us and what the sound of it is, that\u2019s good\u201d<\/p>\n Was it the same for the lyrics?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mumford:<\/strong> \u201cFor the first time in a while, I was writing a lyric and not thinking about how anyone would respond to it. I was only thinking about how it felt to me, which is why it was most similar to the first record. On the first record, you don\u2019t imagine a big audience because you haven\u2019t played the big shows, you haven\u2019t had the feedback, you haven\u2019t had the NME<\/em> review. This time, we were making it for ourselves first and foremost behind closed doors and it felt amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n What was inspiring you lyrically this time around? What were you mining?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Mumford:<\/strong> \u201cI just feel like it\u2019s deeply honest and has everything that I want to say on it. I\u2019d say it\u2019s direct, open and free.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019ve heard the single \u2018Rubber Band Man\u2019 featuring Hozier<\/a>. What brought you guys together and why on that song?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mumford:<\/strong> \u201cWe\u2019ve been friends with Andrew for a long time. It goes back a really long time: about 12 years. We\u2019ve played with him a bunch and he\u2019s exactly like you\u2019d imagine him to be: a deeply thoughtful, soulful artist. We sent him the whole record when we had it in semi-demo form and he picked \u2018Rubber Band Man\u2019 as something he\u2019d love to sing. It just jumped out to him. We\u2019ve had these points of connection over the years and this felt like the right time to collaborate on record.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve collaborated with people a lot on stage, but we\u2019ve never had that many collaborations on our albums. It was fun opening the doors because it\u2019s reflective of the spirit of our band that we\u2019ve had since we started with that Laura Marling<\/a>, Noah & The Whale, JJ Pinestone crowd. There were always 12 of us on stage, even before we formed the band! It\u2019s always been a very collaborative enterprise, we\u2019ve never represented that on record before and we just felt like now was the time.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Mumford](\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025_mumfordandsons_conorcunningham_2000x1270.jpg\")
![\"Mumford](\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Mumford-Sons-performing-at-Flat-Iron-Square-in-Central-London.-Credit-PRESS-copy-3.jpg\")