???

[Herman Trout]

Is the consensus that the ??? on the line up was a one-off last year? I was asked by an EOTR worker on site what I'd thought of it and was led to believe that they had enjoyed the mystery [my word!].

[SweepingTheNation]

The belief is that Simon really wanted to book Wet Leg while he could/at the end of their first album touring cycle and they wanted to play given their history with the festival but they were under Festival Republic contract - their only other UK summer dates were Reading & Leeds and Pulp's Finsbury Park show, both FR promoted - and all sides negotiated a deal where they could appear but only if kept secret until the day. In the Guardian interview where he revealed Angel Olsen wanted to play the Garden stage he also said he'd lost a potential female-led headliner to an exclusivity contract so presumably that was them and they would otherwise have been billed as joint headliners.

They've had other surprise slots - Shame and Wild Beasts both played the Big Top - but those were name acts either just about to release albums or trying out new material.

[shoebox]

I think a lot of fun was had with the guessing as to who it would be but in the end it wasn't great due to how poorly attended other sets being played at the same time were. I felt so sorry Samia, who played a brilliant set to very few people.

So yeah, I'm not keen on it. I'd probably change my tune were it to happen again and it was someone I actually wanted to see though

[Kempleton]

I think it was a fantastic booking, I thoroughly enjoyed their set, and I’m impressed they managed to keep it completely secret.

That said, i don’t think I ever want that to happen ever again. Totally agree about the effect on other stages. I also don’t think Samia was helped by whatever happened before her set, meaning that she had to start late

I think the circumstances last year were so specific that it probably won’t happen again. EOTR has a long track record of secret sets, but not that high up on the main stage.