We are very excited to reveal the 2018 Day Splits and the addition of Tirzah to our line up. We’re also thrilled that BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction will be returning to the Tipi Stage on Friday night, curating another evening of experimental and eclectic music from around the globe. We are also partnering with Prince Charles Cinema for the first time, who will programme Saturday and Sunday at The Cinema this year. More details on both these special collaborations coming very soon.
Headlining the festival on Thursday night are the indefinable and enduringly popular Yo La Tengo. Thursday’s opening act is still to be announced, while Loud & Quiet are set to host our first ever opening party with a late night Silent Disco, following the usual array of Thursday night surprise sets on The Tipi Stage.
We’re spoiled for choice on The Woods Stage with St. Vincent topping the bill on Friday, with strong support from the venerable Josh T. Pearson and rising star Lucy Dacus. Saturday night plays host to Vampire Weekend’s only UK festival this year, preceded by festival favourite and delicately demented storyteller, Gruff Rhys. Feist will close The Woods Stage on Sunday night, following the always welcome return of End Of The Road sweetheart, Ezra Furman.
Meanwhile, the iconic Garden Stage is an embarrassment of riches with Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy on Friday and Velvet Underground John Cale on Sunday, assuming the mighty Oh Sees didn’t destroy it on Saturday!
The astonishingly musically dexterous White Denim provide our happy ending on Sunday night, following avante-pop composer Julia Holter’s End Of The Road debut. We’re also thrilled to welcome Mulatu Astatke to the festival on Saturday, The Garden Stage providing the perfect setting for his unique Latin rhythm influenced Ethiopian Jazz.
Friday’s Big Top line up is presented by Loud & Quiet with a staggering line up including the criminally talented Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Micachu collaborator and muse Tirzah, topped off by Detroit post-punk rockers Protomartyr. Uncut present Saturday’s bill, led by experimental electronic wizard James Holden And The Animal Spirits, with both Hookworms and Flat Worms closely behind. Sunday, hosted by our friends at The Line Of Best Fit, sees outlandish pop pioneer Ariel Pink bring the house down, with strong support from the wildly popular IDLES and Japanese Breakfast’s blissed-out guitar pop.
For the sonically adventurous, as well as the return of BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction on Friday night, The Tipi Stage welcomes a wealth of exciting new talent. Raucous indie supergroup Warmduscher (fronted by Clams Baker of Paranoid London and backed by members of Fat White Family and Insecure Men who are also appearing at this year’s festival) will perform a late night set on Friday. Plus we welcome rising stars Snail Mail, described by Pitchfork as ‘the wisest teenage indie rockers we know’ and Nashville native Soccer Mommy, whose debut album proper Clean is one of the finest we’ve heard this year.
In addition to all of this, throughout the four days, there will be the usual array of surprise performances, one-off collaborations and artist Q&As – presented in collaboration with The Line of Best Fit – that have become End of The Road’s trademark. There will be a variety of after-hours fun and dancing to be had at the Silent Disco, The Disco Ship and The Outlands, plus Loud & Quiet’s podcast series Midnight Chats recorded live on the Piano Stage.