End of the Road Festival

[Bloodflowerbill]

After last year's superb weather (a bit rainy on the Saturday but it made lovely rainbows), excellent line-up (The Mountain Goats, Jeffrey Lewis, Mercury Rev) and all the wonderful people I met whilst stewarding, this year's End of the Road festival (the fourth) had a lot to live up to.

Once again I was stewarding with the glum notion of a couple of unsociable shifts on the Saturday and Sunday, this was tempered by being placed in the Main Stage/Secret Garden area; so I'd hopefully be able to hear some bands. Another sore point was that this time around stewards weren't given free programms, and as I'd been relatively unprepared (my presence at the festival was not guaranteed until late in the day) I had no band schedule, so had to keep stealing glances until I finally blagged a programme on the last day. Saying that though, the line-up this year was solid but didn't really hold many 'essentials', which is no bad thing, the quality and care taken by the organisers - and their damn fine taste - means that this is one of the perfect festivals to amble around and discover musical gems that may have passed you by. Indeed, that's what I planned to do.

http://www.######/content/...p;type=Features

[M.G.Frogworthy]

After last year's superb weather (a bit rainy on the Saturday but it made lovely rainbows), excellent line-up (The Mountain Goats, Jeffrey Lewis, Mercury Rev) and all the wonderful people I met whilst stewarding, this year's End of the Road festival (the fourth) had a lot to live up to.

Once again I was stewarding with the glum notion of a couple of unsociable shifts on the Saturday and Sunday, this was tempered by being placed in the Main Stage/Secret Garden area; so I'd hopefully be able to hear some bands. Another sore point was that this time around stewards weren't given free programms, and as I'd been relatively unprepared (my presence at the festival was not guaranteed until late in the day) I had no band schedule, so had to keep stealing glances until I finally blagged a programme on the last day. Saying that though, the line-up this year was solid but didn't really hold many 'essentials', which is no bad thing, the quality and care taken by the organisers - and their damn fine taste - means that this is one of the perfect festivals to amble around and discover musical gems that may have passed you by. Indeed, that's what I planned to do.

http://www.######/content/...p;type=Features

Edited October 22, 2009 by M.G.Frogworthy

[Sipperana]

Interestingly we saw more bands this year than last year - but that would be because we actually had heard of them when we went there. 2008 was mostly about discovering the festival - and discovering bands afterwards. This year we did our homework and as a result saw loads of great bands, many of whom were head and shoulders better live than on record.

Maybe next year we'll have a more relaxed time - but only if they book some crap bands, which is unlikely.