Latest News

HELLO FRIENDS!

With less than 48 hours to go until End of the Road streams right into your living room, we bring you ‘In the Garden of Streaming’s’ detailed schedule. Look, not a clash in sight!

Tune in from wherever you are on Sunday, 6th September from 6:30 pm at live.endoftheroadfestival.com.

We’ll be streaming unique performances from Squid, Billy Nomates, Katy J Pearson, The Golden Dregs, Modern Woman, plus a one-off collaborative improvisation between two drummers Morgan Simpson of black midi and Kwake Bass, a live drawing workshop with resident End Of The Road artist Dan Jamieson, Q&As with special guests and an array of electrifying surprises to light up your living room.

We’ve pulled out all the stops to bring you an evening of live performance, and we want as many of you to join us as possible so this is a pay-what-you-want event. If you feel you can, we’d really appreciate your contributions toward covering our costs. 20% of all proceeds will go to our long term local charity partner CODA MUSIC TRUST.

See you in cyberspace.

You knew it, we knew it… Not even wild horses could keep us from bringing you a slice of live End of the Road magic. Since you can’t come to us this year, we’ll come to you … we present ‘In the Garden of Streaming’ recorded live from Larmer Tree Gardens.

In The Garden Of Streaming starts at 6.30 pm on Sunday 6th September, tune in here: live.endoftheroadfestival.com

On Sunday 6th September, we will mark this year’s postponed festival with stellar live performances, alongside workshops, Q&As and more, bringing all the magic of the Gardens into your own home. In true End of The Road spirit, we have selected some of of the most exciting new music that we have been listening to lately.

Festival sweethearts Squid, who were the talk of the weekend last year after playing a whopping three sets to wild acclaim, return to End of The Road as headliners ready to disrupt your living room (and your neighbours).

Rising star Billy Nomates, aka Tor Maries, is an authentic, authoritative and frequently funny performer who recorded her debut album with Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, no less. Last seen mesmerising the audience at End of The Road’s Christmas shindig, Katy J Pearson will be performing songs from her anticipated debut album Return while fellow West Country troubadours The Golden Dregs bring their punchy debut Lafayette, packed full of wry wit, bittersweet ennui and simmering beauty.

Forever championing new talent, we’re delighted to introduce London-based four-piece Modern Woman who have been creating a whirlwind of buzz through their electrifying live shows without a note of music being released yet.

The evening will also feature a one off collaborative improvisation between two drummers Morgan Simpson of black midi and Kwake Bass, recorded at The Room studios and presented by our friends at Loud And Quiet. Plus a live drawing workshop with resident End Of The Road artist Dan Jamieson, Q&As with special guests and an array of electrifying surprises to light up your living room.

We owe a huge debt of thanks to all of you for sticking with us this year. We can’t thank you enough but we’re not out of the woods yet. We’ve pulled out all the stops to bring you an evening of live performance, and we want as many of you to join us as possible so this event is available free of charge. If you feel you can, we’d really appreciate your contributions toward covering our costs. 20% of all proceeds will go to our long term local charity partner CODA MUSIC TRUST.

Before we go, a big thank you for your support, your encouragement, and for keeping the independent spirit of End of The Road alive.

We can’t wait to have a beer with you all soon.

For now, see you in cyberspace!
Team EOTR

Dear Friends,

There is a first time for everything and this year has been a series of firsts, big time. We were hoping we wouldn’t have to add to the list but sadly this will be the first time in 15 years that there will be no End of The Road: due to the current pandemic, we are postponing the 2020 festival until 2021. 

We’ll desperately miss dancing, singing and partying with all of you. We know you’ll all be missing it too, there is nothing quite like the buzz of live music, but we know this is the right decision for everyone; for our audience, performers, staff and crew, vendors, real ale purveyors, the gardeners who cut the grass and feed the peacocks, the local community, the hard-working NHS staff and key workers, and for all those affected beyond our hedges. 

We’ll be back and ready for one hell of a party from 2nd – 5th September 2021. So will Pixies, King Krule, Big Thief, Bright Eyes, Aldous Harding and Little Simz – who have all already confirmed that they’ll be joining us. We are hugely grateful to these artists and their teams for being so supportive.

We were so proud too of our sadly-not-to-be 2020 line-up, so we’ll be working hard over the summer to stay as true to that as possible come 2021 – with a few exciting new names too.

We owe a huge debt of thanks to our audience for sticking with us during this impossibly difficult time. We also need your help, more than ever, to keep the independent spirit of End of The Road alive so we’re asking you to roll your tickets forward to 2021 if you can. If you need it, and times are hard we know, you are of course entitled to a face-value refund.

We will be contacting all ticket buyers with further details later today. Please refer to our FAQs for more information before you email us.

Over the next few months we will cheer you with news and updates on band bookings and how we are faring in our quest to bring you the most magical and creative End of The Road yet!

Love to you all,

Simon and the team at End of The Road

End Of The Road recognises that by putting on a music festival, we are contributing to the climate crisis and each year, by bringing huge amounts of infrastructure to a field along with thousands of festival-goers, we play a part in damaging the environment. 

We are therefore always thinking of initiatives and changes that we can make to alleviate our footprint. We’ve been partnered with A Greener Festival’s Festival Wood campaign since 2014 and with your help have been able to plant over 6000 trees in Scotland.

Since 2014 we have been reconfiguring the festivals power design in order to reduce fuel consumption. In 2019 we used 27% less than in 2013. 

In 2018 we cut our single-use plastic offering by 50% before introducing our Cup Scheme with Green Goblet in 2019, charging festival-goers £2 per new cup in order to reduce our single-use plastic consumption as part of AIF’s “Drastic On Plastic” campaign. With your help, we cut out single-use plastic almost completely.

After covering our costs, some of the profits from the scheme paid for a carbon audit of the festival carried out by Clean Earth Collective, to help decide how to best support environmental community projects around the world.

Following their advice, we used the remaining money to offset our core operations (infrastructure etc) with a Gold Standard Community based project, distributing energy-efficient cookstoves to the Shimoni community in Kenya. More information about the project can be found here. We have also further offset our audience travel with an investment in wind turbines in Costa Rica, more information on this initiative can be found here.

We are proud to say that with your help End Of The Road 2019 offset the emissions of itself and the previous two and a half years of the festival.

We’re also super happy to say that at End of The Road in 2019 we had six tents dropped at the donation point and zero abandoned tents in the fields. You’re all superstars!

More about all our Environmental Initiatives can be found here.

The winners of this year’s Play End Of The Road competition have been revealed. We’re talking three incredible new bands that were hand-picked from a list of thousands of hopeful applicants and have won a spot on our 2020 bill.

Catchy and eccentric pop from Melin Melyn, grunge influenced guitar tones from Marlaena Moore and trumpeter and composer James Leonard Hewitson will join us at this year’s festival.

See the full line up here.

Hello Self-Isolators, Social Distancers, Teachers, NHS Staff, Work From Home-ers and all End of The Road-ers!

We hope you’re keeping well wherever you are – be it working in your PJs, bathing in hand-sanitiser, battling on the front lines or constructing teetering toilet paper towers.

With End of The Road a comforting 24 weeks away we’ve never been so grateful to have a festival at the end of the season, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t closely monitoring the situation.

We look forward to welcoming you all in September, drink in hand, surrounded by our favourite bands, friends and plenty of peacocks. Today we’ve announced the winners of our Play End of The Road competition in the shape of Melin Melyn, Marlaena Moore and James Leonard Hewitson, who will also be joining the party in September.

In the event that we did have to postpone our 15th Year Anniversary, 2020 tickets would be honoured in 2021 or you could get a refund if you prefer. You can refer to our full T&Cs here.

We know life will be pretty surreal and stressful at the moment for a lot of you, so a HUGE thank you for your continued support. As ever, we wouldn’t exist without you. Let’s get through this together and get to Larmer Tree Gardens on the other side.

In the meantime stay safe, stay at home, act responsibly and keep washing those hands!

Very best
Team EOTR

With less than six months to go until End of the Road 2020, we’re delighted to reveal another haul of bands to be added to the already sparkling line up. 

Joining headliners Pixies, King Krule, Angel Olsen and Big Thief on the bill will be experimental classical composer and leftfield electronic pop producer Anna Meredith, genre wandering desert blues band Songhoy Blues, Chicago drummer, producer and ‘beat scientist’ Makaya McCraven, explosive electronic artist Blanck Mass, visionary musician, actress and dancer Keeley Forsyth, and much much more. 

Final Tier on sale now. Book your tickets here

Fast becoming a national treasure following no less than an MBE, multi-disciplined composer, producer and musician Anna Meredith returns to End of the Road with her breathtaking live show, straddling contemporary classical, art pop, techno, ambient and experimental rock.

Having long been on the wish list, we’re thrilled to welcome Songhoy Blues for the first time. Known for their electrifying live shows as much as their harrowing story, they have overcome political unrest and exile from their home, to find themselves working with Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and counting Julian Casablancas among their many discerning fans. 

Blurring the boundaries of jazz and electronic music, drummer and sonic visionary Makaya McCraven reinvents musical performance through his ‘organic beat music’. Last month he released a re-imagining of the seminal I’m New Here, transforming Gil-Scott Heron‘s final album into a masterpiece of dirty blues and spiritual jazz, and it will be a privilege to have him perform it at End Of the Road. 

Hailed as “the new Scott Walker” (link) by The Guardian, dancer, actress and composer Keeley Forsyth produced one of the most startling and acclaimed records of the year so far with the avant-garde and beautiful Debris, documenting her descent into depression. With her voice landing somewhere between Peggy Lee and Nico, her performance at Larmer Tree Gardens promises to be a truly captivating and moving experience. 

The Cinema will have live music for the first time thanks to Cornish-Welsh musician and Welsh Music Prize winner Gwenno Saunders who returns to End Of The Road this summer to perform the score to ‘Bait’ live alongside a screening of the film. Gwenno will be joined by Georgia Ellery, who not only plays Katie in the film but is also a musician in Jockstrap and Black Country, New Road.

NEW ADDITIONS TO END OF THE ROAD 2020 LINE UP:

Songhoy Blues

Makaya McCraven

Anna Meredith

Blanck Mass

Archie Bronson Outfit

Alice Boman

Sorry

Current Joys

Ahmed Fakroun

Gwenno (performs live score to ‘Bait’ with Georgia Ellery)

Keeley Forsyth

Vagabon

William Doyle

Jeffrey Martin

PVA

John

Pan Amsterdam

caroline

Disq

Red River Dialect

Drug Store Romeos

Zulu Zulu

Sofia Wolfson

Ian Noe

Norman

Martha Rose

David Thomas Broughton

Chubby & The Gang

Pat T Smith

oldboy

Willy Tea Taylor

It seems like it was only yesterday that we were packing up our tents after 2019’s magical End of the Road. It was quite a year: the NME said it was “inarguably, the best-curated festival of the summer”, BBC 6 Music Drivetime listeners voted it ‘Best Festival’ and Michael Kiwanuka’s breathtaking performance earned him a Q Award… Now we’re back in business with another phenomenal set of headliners, along with many more outstanding bands and performers. So, without further ado…

BOOK YOUR TICKETS HERE

First up, it’s the band Kurt Cobain said he stole his riffs from and the ones who made loud-quiet-loud into an art form … It’s an honour to welcome Pixies to Dorset for their End of the Road debut. From festival headlining veterans to one topping the bill for the first time, true cult original King Krule will bring his endlessly inventive music to the Woods Stage, as will the singular Angel Olsen – who returns to Larmer Tree Gardens having left audiences awestruck by the sheer range of her voice back in 2013. After their transcendental Garden Stage performance two years – and two incredible albums – ago, Brooklyn folk-rock four-piece Big Thief make their return, this time on the biggest stage.

After a nearly ten year hiatus, we still can’t quite believe that Bright Eyes will be performing at End of the Road for the first time in 2020. Hearing songs old and new from the band who made some of the 00’s defining records will be truly unforgettable in the stunning surroundings of Larmer Tree Gardens.

Incomparable New Zealand songwriter Aldous Harding makes her third appearance with her delicate but danceable tunes, whilst End of the Road royalty Richard Hawley returns 12 years after having first performed way back in 2008.

UK rap pioneer Little Simz leads the charge of this year’s talented wordsmiths, alongside one of the underground’s most in-demand artists, Shygirl and 19-year-old London poet Arlo Parks. Bay Area spoken word artist and musician Tenesha The Wordsmith puts her deft and sharp words against a backdrop of leftfield electronica, soul, hip-hop, and jazz, whilst dazzlingly talented The Comet Is Coming bring their “apocalyptic space-funk” to End of the Road for the first time. The buzz around Black Country, New Road at last year’s festival was so intense that we decided to have them play again this year.

Continuing End Of The Road’s explorations into the experimental we have the Electronic-folk supergroup Creep Show. Join the legend that is John Grant, along with his friends Stephen Mallinder from Cabaret Voltaire, Tunng’s Phil Winter and sometime John Foxx foil Benge, as they delve into the world of dark analogue electro. New York duo 75 Dollar Bill — whose 2019 double album I Was Real topped Wire Magazine’s albums of the year — will be exploring new terrain that blurs traditional and modern music genres, whilst pioneering UK trio Trash Kit will bring their own exhilarating post-punk from across their three thrilling albums. 

And finally, it wouldn’t be End of the Road without its now signature set of raucous guitar acts. Crowned kings of riffs Pixies will be in excellent company with Dublin four-piece Girl Band, fellow Irelanders Just Mustard, South London post-punkers Dry Cleaning, and festival sweethearts Squid.

END OF THE ROAD FESTIVAL 2020 LINE UP:

Pixies

King Krule

Angel Olsen

Big Thief

Bright Eyes

Richard Hawley

Little Simz

Aldous Harding

Whitney

The Comet is Coming

Field Music

Girl Band

Pinegrove

Romare

Richard Dawson

Warmduscher

Andy Shauf

Squid

Creep Show

Girl Ray

Black Country, New Road

Nadia Reid

Vanishing Twin

Arlo Parks

Dry Cleaning

Big Joanie

Jerkcurb

Darren Hayman

Shygirl

Penelope Isles 

Buck Meek

Just Mustard 

Fenne Lily

W. H. Lung

75 Dollar Bill

Monophonics

Itasca

Dana Gavanski

All We Are

Studio Electrophonique 

Tenesha The Wordsmith

Trash Kit

Sarathy Korwar

Aoife Nessa Frances

Katy J Pearson

Jake Xerxes Fussell 

Sleep Eaters 

The Claque 

The Goa Express

Junior Brother 

Elijah Wolf 

Lazarus Kane 

The Golden Dregs

Lee Patterson 

Plus more acts to be announced…

LISTEN TO THE FULL LINE UP HERE

APPLICATIONS OPEN HERE NOW

This year, one of the selected artists will open one of the Major Stages (Woods, Garden, Big Top) and the others will be offered a spot on the other stages.

Application Rules / Terms & Conditions:

Entry:

• Only applications submitted through the online form will be accepted. To enter, you will need to create a unique account including your name and email address. You will also be asked to create a password. We will not accept applications by email or social media.
• Applications are open from 4 December – Midnight 9 February
• Only applications received by the closing date will be considered.
• You can see from our past line-ups what sort of music we are interested in.
• You must be available on the following dates: Thursday 3rd September – Sunday 6th September 2020 inclusive

Announcement:

• The winners will be notified by mid-March, and announced on our website/Facebook shortly thereafter. Please do not email us to ask for updates.

If you are successful:

• We will pay a fee of £150 for each of these slots, to help with travel costs etc.
• It is your responsibility to make your way to and from the festival, and you agree to be on time for your load in / stage time.
• You agree to provide the information required in our ‘Artist Brief’ in good time.

The dates for next year’s End Of The Road festival have been announced for 3 – 6 September 2020. Early Bird tickets went on sale this morning and sold out in a record 7 minutes time, Tier Two tickets are on sale now for £175, get yours HERE

The Deposit Scheme also makes a return – you can pay £45 now and top up the balance in however many instalments you wish, as long as the balance is fully paid by 2nd July.

Once you buy your ticket you’ll be given an online account with us. Your login details are the email address you used to purchase your ticket and a password will be emailed to you. When you’re logged in, you can use your account to pay your deposit balance, view your order and add new tickets or extras.

AUDIENCE SURVEY

We would really love to hear more about what you think of End Of The Road. Help us make next year’s festival even better by filling out our audience survey.

Simply click HERE to start the survey and be in with a chance of winning a pair of weekend tickets for End Of The Road 2020.

See you down the front!