NEWS
BIGGER PICTURE
What: End of the Road Festival’ s 20th anniversary Where: Larmer Tree Gardens, Dorset When: 3-6 September 2026 Image: Gem Harris
At a time when sizeable independent festivals have become few and far between, End of the Road continues to forge a hugely successful path. Featuring a line-up including CMAT, Geese, Mac DeMarco and Pulp, this year’ s 20th anniversary edition of the festival not only saw it once again get near unanimous 5-star reviews, but it also sold out for the seventeenth consecutive year.
For End of the Road Festival founder Simon Taffe, it may well be a successful business but curating and designing the event each year is clearly a labour of love built around a passion for music.
“ We always make sure we give people more than they expect,” he says.“ Obviously, we make some profit but primarily I ' m focused on putting more money back into the artists and the creativity.”
While many festivals have given young artists early-stage exposure, very few can be said to have inspired them to form. In 2023, Wet Leg returned to the festival to play an unannounced set having hatched a plan on the event’ s Ferris wheel at a previous edition to launch the band.
Staged at the festival’ s longtime home, Larmer Tree Gardens, on the border of Wiltshire and Dorset, the 15,000-capacity event has won a hugely loyal following and not only among fans and media.
Says Taffe,“ Artists love the festival. It ' s really important to me that they have an incredible time. I do everything I can to make sure End of the Road is one of the best shows they ' re going to experience, and that feeds back in terms of word of mouth. I ' ve got bands who love playing, and I can ' t say yes to them every year so sometimes it’ s a case of asking them to do something different at the festival – a collaboration, a cover of a classic album, or something really unexpected.
“ I’ m obsessed with music. I try as hard as I can to get as many artists at the festival as possible who are not doing the rounds so it ' s not just another indie festival. It’ s set up to be a festival for real music fans.”
With no shortage of demand from punters and performers alike it could be tempting for Taffe to locate some laurels and rest on them, but instead he’ s driven to continually tweak and refresh the setup.
“ I ' d get bored if I went to the same event every year, even if the bands are different,” he says.“ We have a huge focus on progressing sustainability, and we are always trying to think of how to add fresh, interesting, and bespoke elements to the event and its programme.
“ There ' s a huge creative team and we change the décor each year. There are certain things we do that other festivals wouldn ' t necessarily do, such as changing food traders because I don ' t want it to be the same market every year. It ' s a matter of trying to keep it fresh and surprise people.”
6 accessaa. co. uk