An insider's guide on what to see at End of the Road Festival this year
With End of the Road - our favourite British festival - just over a week away, we catch up with some of the bands, music writers, content creators, and festival staff and fans to get their insider tips on who to see this year.
The four-day event, which celebrates its 20th anniversary next week, has long been a showcase of what's up-and-coming as much as what's on top. With one of the best undercards you'll find at any European festival this – or indeed any – year, it's your last chance before school starts up again to let loose and get to know the bands everyone will be talking about in six months time.
The environment itself is also key – it's intimate and magical. Add an attentive and music-obsessed crowd and you have the perfect incubator for new work to land with profound impact. We'll be putting on some of those early discoveries alongside some legends of modern music as part of our famous pop-up secret sessions on the piano stage but here's what some of our friends are also looking forward to.
Joshua Idehen
Recommended by Laura Barton, writer at The Guardian
To see Joshua Idehen live has always been a disarming experience — whether that was with his former band, Benin City, or on stage with Sons of Kemet (he contributed to their albums Your Queen is a Reptile and Black to the Future), performing his poetry, unaccompanied (in the days when I ran the spoken word stage at Green Man, Joshua was one of my favourite bookings). In his solo music project, the two meld into something invincible and irresistible — a radical and defiant positivity, bolstered by exuberant dancing. Beneath the zeal often lies a political suckerpunch, exemplified by the track Mum Does the Washing, which enjoyed something of a viral surge, and saw Idehen methodically burning through a series of ideologies, from capitalism to TERFism via patriarchy and male feminism. Last year, his album I Know You’re Hurting, Everyone Is Hurting, Everyone Is Trying, You Have Got to Try continued in this vein, drawing on his long-running partnership with Ludvig Parment to create something whipsmart and urgent, euphoric and wonderful.
Please also make time for Lily Seabird and Way Dynamic, whose albums stand among my favourites of the year!)
Joshua Idehen plays The Folly on Friday 4 September
Modern Woman
Recommended by Stuart Stubbs, Editor at Loud and Quiet
I’ve just got this feeling that Modern Woman are going to be the undeniable set of the weekend. The way Savages were in 2016, when even people who’d caught them by chance had to say, that was something else. They’d have to play their debut album pretty badly for it not to be the case, and listening to Johnny’s Dreamworld, I’m not sure that’s even possible. In the year of The Great Mercury Prize Independent Music Snub, Johnny’s Dreamworld is the biggest overlook, for me; a perfectly crafted art-rock record where its sense of clattering fun doesn’t come at the cost of its expertise. It’s a fully formed album of eccentric drama and Bad Seeds-esque blackened rock menace, yes, but it isn’t tekkers for the sake of it, as singer and virtuoso guitarist Sophie Harris vocally cartwheels over her band of foreboding violin, sax, bass and drums.
The last time I saw Modern Woman their star instrument was a modified wooden table they’d found in the street (and attached a lot of crap to, which they then hit). It was long before Johnny’s Dreamworld, and I can’t garauntee the table hasn’t joined another band since, but Modern Woman have channelled their playfulness of "conflicting things" into a quite brilliant album, so I can't wait to see how they rip through it.
Modern Women play The Woods stage on Thursday 3 September
Mark William Lewis
Recommended by Ben Tibbits, Features Editor at Wonderland magazine
Mark William Lewis should be transported back to the Newport Folk Festival in the 1960s. He’s a troubadour, a storyteller. He was the first artist who signed to A24 Music – a surefire sign of his reputation – and his crooning, subtly cinematic style has forever been growing and shifting. He’s also excellent live.
Mark William Lewis plays The Big Top on Sunday 6 September
Thredd
Recommended by Tia Ho, content creator
Thredd is a trio forged in the subterranean fires of the Laylow Residency, a now-defunct studio and living space in Notting Hill formerly graced by Caroline Polachek, Jai and AK Paul, and others who used it as an incubator for formative and in some cases career-defining work. Thredd was the last to do a Laylow Residency, and the only band to emerge from it. As solo artists, Imogen and the Knife, Max Winter, and Will Lister all operate in different lanes — but their perspectives collide and collude in the joint project, one which, per the Laylow structure of performing unfinished works every week, honed a collaborative instinct based more on feeling than form and is now releasing alternative cold pop that possesses so much potential.
One of my favorite acts coming out of London right now, and considering the UK is home to my favorite music scenes, is to say one of my favorite new acts in the world.
Thredd play The Boat on Friday 4 September
Brìghde Chaimbeul
Recommended by Simon Taffe, Founder of End of the Road Festival
Brìghde Chaimbeul is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary folk music, taking the ancient, hypnotic sound of the Scottish smallpipes and pushing it somewhere uniquely modern. Her music is , repetitive and immersive, drawing on Gaelic tradition while creating something that can feel almost minimalist or trance-like. This is the kind of performance that will pull you away from the bustle of the festival and into a strange, beautiful sound world. If you want to see an artist who genuinely doesn’t sound like anyone else on the bill, Brìghde Chaimbeul should be high on your list!
Brìghde Chaimbeul plays The Garden stage on Saturday 5 September
Fine
Recommended by Margeux Labat aka content creator marg.mp3
Fine is one of the many talented musicians deeply entrenched in the trailblazing Danish avant-pop scene that’s happening right now, alongside artists like ML Buch, Smerz and Erika de Casier. She’s definitely some mysterious mood music for me… I tend to listen to her whenever I’m feeling lonesome and sensual, typically at night. Her vocal delivery can be pretty static and lowkey, but on some of her songs she hits these subtle RnB runs… I think she has the voice of an angel. If you’re looking for where to start with her, songs like “Days Incomplete”, “Run” and “Coasting” best encapsulate her sound. In my eyes she’s a sort of Danish Hope Sandoval.
Fine plays The Folly on Sunday 6 September
YHWH Nailgun
Recommended by Sam Ford, Editor of So Young magazine
I first came across YHWH Nailgun in September 2023 via someone's Instagram stories. The four-piece were playing a show in an abandoned New York tunnel and the clips I was fed caused immediate excitement. Something in the sharp, muscular performance of frontman Zack Borzone was enough for me to send a flurry of messages to try and find out more. Musically, YHWH Nailgun, tap into experimental, more electronic realms than my regular listening, but there's a heaviness, punk adjacent spirit to its delivery that nailed it down as something for me. That I needed more of ,and I needed to tell more people about. Anyway, the band have shared a new (11 minute) record via 4AD this year, and they're on the cover of our most recent issue. If you are yet to see YHWH Nailgun, they're an act not to miss and it's likely they'll reshape your festival experience.
YHWH Nailgun play The Woods stage on Thursday 3 September
Lily Seabird
Recommended by Renny Conti
Lily Seabird is the absolute real deal and everyone should go see her play at End of the Road. Her and I played a house show together in 2018 and have shared a couple bills since and every time I’m reminded how sick she is. Her band rips, she’s an incredible songwriter, passionate singer, and is clearly in it for all the right reasons. Her live show is so good and heavy and raw and her records are from the heart. Great musician and a very prolific artist that I’d definitely recommend.
Lily Seabird plays The Woods stage on Sunday 6 September; Renny Conti plays The Folly on Friday 4 September
Prewn
Recommded by Lily Seabird
Everyone should go see Prewn! Izzy has been a friend for many years, the project used to be based in western mass and have played many a diy show with them. I can still remember the first time seeing them play and being absolutely blown away by Izzy’s vocals, guitar chops, and the visceral energy of the show. The new record is deep and heavy and has been on rotation for me all year. I am so bummed we are not playing the same day so everyone please go in my place! You won’t regret it.
Prewn plays The Garden Stage on Friday 4 September
PISS
Recommended by Emily Pilbeam from BBC 6 Music
Top of my list of bands to see at End of the Road Festival this year has to be PISS. PISS are a hardcore punk band from Vancouver who I actually managed to catch last year at Left of the Dial festival in Rotterdam. Their live set is one of the most intense & visceral live performances I've ever seen. I'd probably describe their shows as performance art with noisy, aggressive punk soundtracking it. It is a must-see performance, but must come with a trigger warning that sexual assault is discussed throughout the performance.
PISS play The Folly on Sunday 6 September
Ohtis
Recommended by Jordan Bassett, writer at NME, Time Out and SPIN
It took Ohtis 15 years to record their extraordinary, life-affirming debut album, 2019’s Curve of Earth, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that the follow-up is arriving some seven years later. The life’s work of singer Sam Swinson, the band formed at school in Normal, Illinois but were derailed by his debilitating drug addiction – recovery from which he poured into Curve of Earth’s gorgeously understated country songs.
Upcoming mixtape Virgos are Honest showcases a more complex but no less arresting sound; after their profoundly moving appearance at End of The Road in 2019, their return to Larmer Tree Gardens is bound to be worth the wait.
Ohtis play the Talking Heads stage on Sunday 6 September
Madra Salach
Recommended by Paul Bridgewater, The Line of Best Fit
Hardly a well kept secret at this point, Madra Salach ("dirty dog" in Irish) are yet another Dublin export that show the city's music scene in forward momentum. The sextet make folk music framed by post-punk and Lankum-ish sonics, with nods to ambient textures and drone soundscapes as much as The Pogues and Dubliners, and delivered with personality, wit and humour. Perhaps it's more significant that their songwriting and performance also nods at their potential and where they're going (and the answer is "a long fucking way"). It's the absolute real thing and with so much heart and soul, I challenge you to not feel something when they reduce the entire audience to goosebumps.
Madra Salach play the Garden Stage on Saturday 5 September
1000 Rabbits
Recommended by music fan and End of the Road regular Hinn Li
I’ve been attending 1000 Rabbits’ sets since August 2024, somewhere around 24 times at this point. There’s always some new bit of nuance to discover, between River’s theatrical delivery of spoken vocals, Paolo’s melodic guitar, Laura’s delicate violin, Liv’s bass synth and Luke’s jazz-tinged drumming. A proper melting pot, with a new flavour coming up each time I dip my fingers in for a sneaky taste. There’s so many layers in their experimental approach to pop that I just cannot get enough of. A few times I have made the call to catch something else in town, and regret making that mistake each time.
The set will go from moments of pure tenderness (Bear Hunt) to a full-blown freak-out (Rubik’s Cube). As ‘Spring Cleaning’ closes out the set, the 4th wall comes tumbling down, with River exhilarating about the joy of making music with friends. We are asked ‘are we friends yet?’
That would be a resounding yes.
1000 Rabbits play The Big Top on Friday 4 September
Wild Pink
Recommended by Julia from Ratboys
If I were to pick one band to represent the United States at End of the Road, it would be Wild Pink. They’re humble and hardworking; they sing about American culture with clear-eyed sincerity; their songs burst open like big, bleeding hearts, beating down an endless freeway; and they fuckin’ rock. The new album Still Coming Down sees John Ross and the guys firing on all cylinders, and anyone who catches the new songs live will be in for a real treat. I only wish we were playing on the same day so that we could see ‘em!
Wild Pink play the Woods stage on Friday 4 September; Ratboys play the Woods stage on Sunday 6 September
End of the Road Festival runs from 3-6 September and is sold out. Find out more at endoftheroadfestival.com.
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