Yoss

Gimme all of that, throw in Stella Donnelly, Dama Scout, Cherry Glazerr and I'd need to change my mind about not being there. (And yes, that would be too late, if they sell out once again before we know the line-up.)

Yeah I know I've already mentioned it myself as well, but I wanna reiterate it was right up there with my favourite festival sets ever. Glad so many of the other people who chose it ahead of Kiwanuka and PQ seem to have rated it as highly as I did.

First time at GM as an EotR regular. Sadly probably my last for the foreseeable, but not because I didn't love it, I just can't normally get away from work for both, and will be sticking with my regular because it's great and there's a whole bunch of us going every year. Cracking weekend though. Can't really think of anything to fault from an organisational perspective - maybe if I'm being picky some more prominent information about schedules would be handy, as at EotR where they put the boards up centrally with all the timings, including any changes. Quite a few people were unaware of the Katy J Pearson / Mdou Moctar switch, for example. The kids debate - there are a lot more than at EotR and I'm not going to pretend that I'm going to be moping around Larmer Tree next week thinking I wish there were more kids here playing diablo. But by and large I found their enjoyment and enthusiasm great to see and that more than outweighed any occasional incident where anyone actively got in my way. I saw very little uncontrolled or bad behaviour. Likewise I didn't have an issue with wagons or families at the stages. And nor was the talking during sets too bad, maybe I was lucky. The stages are all excellent, the Mountain is such a good ampitheatre, the Far Out less gloomy and oppressive than the Big Top, Walled Garden a lovely spot and Rising worked very well too - pity it can't be located further from the main stage so they could make more use of it. (Nothing to match EotR's Garden stage though, sorry.) Feels like I saw loads of music, but then it's always interesting to see people list their highlights and they had a completely different festival. My highlights included Umlauts, English Teacher, Melin Melyn, Pictish Trail, Ichiko Aoba, but the best stuff came with the Sunday night run of Ezra Furman (great as ever, my apologies for having doubted her new material), an entertaining interlude from Joe and the Shitboys; and Charlotte Adigery and Bolis Pupul, absolutely outstanding in closing the Walled Garden - Parquet Courts are one of my favourite bands ever but they made me not regret missing them this time round in the slightest. Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen.

Okay, thank you.

I have one logistics question - I'm bringing my on car so will just be in the main car park, but I'll actually be joining a friend in the campervan field rather than general camping. Is it easy to get straight from one to the other? Do I have to go through wristband exchange first? Thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry, Green Man virgin here - trying not to ask too many questions but what are the Chai Wallahs and Round The Twist things about?

Fat Dog look great, I'll be miffed if they do indeed clash with Mandy, Indiana as currently suggested.

Gwennifer Raymond's time is 20:15, as helpfully retweeted bt EotR themselves.

My only hope was that there'd be nothing too crucial on late on Sunday so I could get a flier on the road back up to Scotland. Instead I gotta choose between Parquet Courts and Charlotte Aidgery? Gonna be a long night.

Actual set times haven't been released until the week of the festival, most years - and last year they weren't released in advance at all, you had to get a programme. But the day splits will be out sometime before then, and since they've been using pretty much the same template for a few years now that'll give you a reasonably well-educated clashfinder and a strong idea of the clashes particularly among headliners.

Also at the Glasgow gig, which was a good gig in large part because the crowd was absolutely buzzing, gave them a great reception which they responded to. New material is work in progress as you'd expect, some sounded great, some of it probably won't make the cut. Overall very much a positive.

... and gone again.

I can't say I've been particularly aware of her doing festivals at all, so maybe that's her own choice.

Self Esteem and Wet Leg were the two acts I thought would be nailed on for this year, and thus far we've got neither (though both have played before in other guises). Surely going to turn up some day. Again not headliners, but Julian Cope and Kristin Hersh are a couple that spring to mind who never seem to have played, and probably should sometime.

End of the Road is and will remain my festival of choice, it's only this year I'm able to do the double-header the way the dates have worked out. Looks like it's come out as a good year for it though. Happy with that. Definitely beats EotR at the upper end of the bill.

Yeah you wouldn't necessarily have thought they were significant enough to delay it, but I guess it might have had a knock-on effect.

It went superquiet after the initial teasing - I'm wondering if they got let down by someone high up the bill just when they thought they were ready to go. In light of this week's news, I guess that might have been BCNR.

It is indeed a pity, being the festivals most akin to one another, that they're so close together. One nearer each end of the season would be perfect. I say give the double-header a go anyway. Or you could grow some balls and tell these so-called friends of yours where to get off.

Didn't he cancel?

I'm a massive hypocrite - I think the rates of infections reported from other festivals in recent weeks are, on the one hand, higher than we should probably be allowing from a national perspective; but on the other hand within the risk limits I personally am willing to take, at least as a one-off, given the importance of End of the Road to me, this year especially. (I'm not actually worried about getting covid myself - what will be will be - only about spreading it, and I plan to be supercautious, if not completely isolate, for a week or so once I'm back.) Also, as others have said, the risk isn't necessarily random, some of it may be coming from crunch points such as the travel, and even when there there may be useful mitigation measures that can be taken. I'm not sure I can make a blanket rule of staying out of the indoor tents altogether - the Tipi in particular would be difficult - but I'll see how things look and feel when I get there. Sure a great festival could still be had at the outdoor stages only if it comes to it.

I will give my answers a week on Monday. But if I had any clues at all as to who might exceed or fall below my expectations at this stage then I would, pretty much by definition, be adjusting my expectations accordingly.

Yeah, definitely her. I recognise her in this interview, in which she talks a bit about making the transition from one to the other. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpd_dYk0QdU

That was worth the listen, thank you.

Wait! What? Rhain is in Wet Leg? I remember her, saw her in the Tipi that year. Extraordinary voice. Completely did not recognise her, visually or vocally. Not that I'm doubting you but we are certain about this? (NB I saw Slow Club twice nine years apart and didn't even realise it was the same band until another couple of years afterwards.)