There are just a handful of tickets left for one of the British summer’s best kept secrets.
Over 16 years, Dorset’s End of the Road Festival has honed a reputation for curating an excellent selection of alternative music from around the world in the lovely setting of Larmer Tree Gardens.
Laid back grooves from New Zealand’s Unknown Mortal Orchestra headline on Friday night, synth-pop US band Future Islands have Saturday’s main slot while Aussie rockers King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard close on Sunday night.
There is a rich selection of music from around the world curated over five stages which means there will be something for every taste.
The more intimate and enclosed Garden stage has hosted some thrilling performances over the years. US singer songwriter headlines on Friday night. It will provide the ideal home to Grammy-winnning Arooj Aftab on Saturday while a festival favourite Ezra Furman returns on Sunday night to close.
It’s not all music. The comedy stage features “no-filter comedy” of Taskmaster’s Lou Saunders, while Sara Pascoe explores the “pros and cons of being a celebrity”. The Talking Heads literature tent features Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller, music journalist Emma Warren and novelist Tom Bullough.
EOTR has expanded over the years. Ticket numbers creep up, stages are added. Thursday’s bill has evolved from an evening to ease yourself in with a pint of scrumpy and a chance to catch a local band into a full pre-opening night. This year, veteran alt-rockers Wilco will headline as curtain-raisers.
After an enforced Covid hiatus in 2020, EOTR returned in 2021 but shorn of international acts and instead featured purely UK based artists The 2022 edition definitely benefited from a broader palette of artists and the result was a return to its vintage best.
There is refreshing breadth to the bill, a credit to founder Simon Taffe’s eclectic but impeccable music taste, drawing in bands from far afield.
I can only offer anecdotal evidence from regular visits to End of the Road since the late 2000s. But my experience tells me it is the best, the nicest and the driest of the English festival season.
