Review: End of the Road Festival, Larmer Tree Gardens, Tollard Royal
The End of the Road Festival has never been one to fall into pigeonholes.
Its eclectic mix of acts flits about among the folk-rock genre, but will deep dive into the heavy stuff alongside more gentle fare, and then heave a load of comedy and art into the mix. Hell, they even had big-hitter Stewart Lee on the bill this year.
This year Idles took pride of the place for Friday night’s headline spot, and they didn’t disappoint, with singer Joe Talbot in especially fine form strutting about the stage and shouting his socially honed one-liners square into the hordes who had gathered.
It was unfortunate that Irish heavy-folk lot Lankam had to compete on the Garden stage at the same time, delivering their bass-heavy, harmony-dripping folk for those who found Idles a little volume-heavy for their liking.
Special mention to Sprints for their show in the Big Top: loud, gloriously hook-laden riffs that deserved a more open space. Stick them on the main stage next year, please.
Fancy your harp music filled with references to holy men, football and Welsh legend? Then Cerys Hafana is for you. A thoroughly engaging start to the Saturday in the Folly.
Nineties showgaze stalwarts Slowdive topped the bill on Saturday, and if you like your droning guitars bereft of variety, the Reading five-piece cut the mustard here. That’s not a criticism; you know what you’re going to get with Slowdive, and there were no alarms and no surprises, which was probably for the best.
Sadly, Fever Ray’s Karin Dreijer had to pull out as they recovered from pneumonia. Those who didn’t check Sunday’s line-up boards were left bewildered by the rave stylings of Floating Point, replacing ’90s alt-rockers Yo La Tengo on the Garden stage as they moved to fill Fever Ray’s headline slot on the main Woods stage.
A highlight of that evening was an extended family trying and failing to put their kids to sleep in trolleys while cavorting merrily – pointy fingers wobbling in the air – into the Floating Point throng, forced to return regularly to comfort the youngsters who, predictably, were having issues getting some shut-eye.
Exemplary shows were again in the Big Top, English Teacher owning every bit of the stage and Slift building a wall of sound so loud it’s a wonder there were any eardrums left unshattered.
Over and above the music, the food on offer was, as usual, an exceptionally varied mix – although regular festival-goers will note little change from previous years.
A little gem of a festival, EotR is small enough not to drown in, but big enough to attract some exceptional acts. Long may it stay that way.
Tickets for next year’s festival are available at https://endoftheroadfestival.com/tickets/
