Preview: End Of The Road Festival 2026
Most view the end of British summer as the end of the August bank holiday. After drinking any and all beer gardens dry, imbibing the rumbling bass of Notting Hill Carnival, and terrorising children with the realisation they’ll be back to school next week, many view this as the beginning of the reluctant crawl towards the shroud of winter. Personally, this is nonsense because you’re forgetting that one of the year’s best festivals sneaks in just as the nights close in: End of the Road. For the festival’s 20th anniversary in 2026 we’re getting stuck in and telling you the top bits to catch from an absolutely stellar lineup.
While festivals tend to warm their punters up with some lighter programming to start, End of the Road have completely laughed this off with their Thursday lineup. Heading the bill are arguably the biggest indie prospect in the world: Geese. Riding high from their champion LP ‘Getting Killed’ and a mammoth bout of touring, the New York quartet were a late addition to the lineup but are probably the most anticipated act of the weekend. Bunk off work early and get down the front – your boss need not know.
New York acts are getting even more love from End Of The Road on Thursday with the evening showcase of Ridgewood’s finest, YHWH Nailgun – our latest cover stars. A blend of hardcore punk thrashing, progressive electronic processing, dance music grooves and math-rock shuffling – if you want to have your mind rearranged while still throwing hands in the pit, these New Yorkers have got you covered.
While you’re getting set up though, drop your tent pegs and shuffle over to see Darlington’s pollyfromthedirt. A warped cut of psychedelic bedroom-pop spliced together with the thundering sword of UK Bass, pollyfromthedirt is a truly exciting British act on the rise. Speaking of which, if you’re looking to further mash your mind come early doors, ensure you catch the freaky chic art-pop of Jennifer Walton while balancing her set’s beauty with the serene post-rock gauze of Bug Teeth whose debut LP, ‘Micrographia’, sounds nearly purpose-made for such a festival. If you’re not done by this point then please don’t miss the wonders of The New Eves’ Nina Winder-Land performing choice cuts from her recent spellbinding solo LP, ‘Wild Love’.
After potentially one of the strongest opening days to festival season, End Of The Road are not letting up with their Friday curation. Shining high stands slacker rock icon Mac DeMarco whose set is destined for some of the most heartfelt singalongs of the weekend. While past legends sail high, new blood is bubbling behind the microtonal, math-rock masks of Quebec’s Angine de Poitrine who will be an unmissable set for many.
EOTR’s folkier side begins to shine forth come Friday. Post-rock orchestra caroline are expansive and grand while still being intimate and gentle, and are the ultimate choice for seeing some of the country’s finest progressive music being produced today. If you enjoyed the originality and innovation of YHWH Nailgun then the freak-folk experimentation of Milkweed is something rare in that their music arrives with nearly zero comparisons – a truly out-there duo. For further folk based experimentation, Kerry’s finest acoustic wildman Junior Brother will be showcasing the progression folk music has taken since the genre’s recent expansive renaissance with jolty, shrill tales of modern Ireland through a peculiar psychedelic lens.
If folk isn’t your thing then you’re spoilt for choice in the rest of the day’s booking, featuring the equally ornate indie-rock acrobatics of Chicago’s Prewn, London’s progressive pop duo extraordinaire Silver Gore, and the confessional accordion-tinged songcraft of Cork’s Cardinals to fulfill your Friday fix. With that said, you cannot end your Friday without witnessing the moody machinations of Tommy Barlow’s bassy, nocturnal delivery followed by the searing dance-punk pump of Boston’s Model/Actriz, who are an absolute must-see this weekend. Few acts will get you screwfacing as hard as Model/Actriz and to catch them in the UK will be a rare treat this weekend.
Hopefully you’ve still got plenty of petrol in your canister come Saturday morning, because a serious storm is brewing throughout Larmer Tree Gardens. Naturally, the biggest pull comes from Britpop’s finest group (yeah, I said it) Pulp. Fresh from their triumphant return and a string of excellent festival slots already under their belt in 2026, Jarvis Cocker and co. are the sort of heritage headliner End of the Road does best. If you’d rather your Saturday come with significantly more sax and synth skronks, however, Fat Dog are primed to turn the Woods stage into one enormous skanking hole. Their glorious blend of techno, post-punk and dance-punk has become the stuff of festival legend, and if you’ve somehow avoided them until now, prepare to lose yourself.
Elsewhere, Saturday is stacked with some of the most distinctive voices on the lineup. Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage remain a stellar live proposition balancing razor-sharp storytelling with ragged garage rock, while Beverly Glenn-Copeland and Elizabeth Copeland promise one of the weekend’s genuinely special heritage performances of sparkling new age ambient that very well may not come round again. Equal parts intimate and transcendent, it’s difficult to imagine a more fitting setting than the Dorset countryside.
If you’re looking to venture further off the beaten path, Slovenia’s Širom are an excellent proposition, occupying a shadow realm entirely of their own, weaving together folk traditions, improvisation and hypnotic instrumentation into something utterly otherworldly. Dublin’s Madra Salach bring similarly fearless folk experimentation by elevating traditional stylings into new forms, easily holding the mantle as one of the world’s finest live acts at the minute. A rousing and unrelenting force that teleports the Irish folk canon into the 21st century through a blunderbuss of punk, Madra Salach are our generation’s Pogues. See them now before they’re headlining festivals for here on out.
Then there’s the electronic experiments of RIP Magic and SILVERWINGKILLER. From the mastermind of Marco Pini (Sorry, Slow Dance), RIP Magic have risen steadily in the UK scene with their slick reimagination of trip-hop turning heads due to a dash of indie-sleaze insouciance thrown in there for good measure. Manchester’s SILVERWINGKILLER are the ultimate synth-punk power couple, combining ballistic electronics with cutting vocals to prove that original, creative sounds are always just beneath the surface. Throw in the psych pop masterstroke of Brighton’s best band big long sun, the slick Parisian multi-hyphenates Spanish Horses, and the ever-unpredictable pairing of Earl Sweatshirt & MIKE, and Saturday becomes a day where difficult clashes feel closer to existential quandaries than scheduling exercises. More shoutouts should be kept for the muscular guitar-based side project of The Orchestra (For Now)’s Joseph Scarisbrick, Big Red; the gorgeously cinematic singer-songwriting masterwork of Alice Costelloe; and the crystalline and floral microtonal acrobatics of Maddie Ashman all gracing The Folly stage come Saturday.
By Sunday, the real world is starting to rear its chuckling head, but tune that out for just one more day. Closing proceedings is the unstoppable CMAT, whose wit, heart and arena-sized choruses have made her a defining voice in modern pop. Before then, though, there’s plenty to savour. Ratboys continue to refine their understated brand of midwest indie rock, while ØXN’s haunting collision of Irish folk and experimental noise promises to be a spellbinding set. Anna von Hausswolff, meanwhile, remains almost peerless when it comes to overwhelming live performance, capable of reducing a raucous field to rapt silence.
As ever, it’s the names lower down the bill that reward curiosity. Mark William Lewis’ smoky, Durutti Column-esque ballads feel tailor-made for a late Sunday afternoon recharge, Los Thuthanaka bring the fruit-forward and scarily wacky psychedelia of the Andes to middle England, while David Thomas Broughton’s unpredictable avant-folk performances are never quite the same twice. Round that out with the quick-rising and rootsy Britainicana of Little Grandad and the dreamy bedroom pop of Snuggle and you’re edging towards some of the most anticipated groups breaking through at the minute.
With that said, to miss out on the bladed political poetry of PISS would be to miss out on arguably the finest live band around. Go to their set open and with earplugs. You will not be prepared and that’s OK. To close out, an essential for this weekend must be a stop-off to witness the spindly post-rock ornamentation of Manchester’s Shaking Hand, whose intricacy, tautness and dark swagger is simply unmissable.
The fact of the matter is that End of the Road always book the greatest artists full stop, and this year for their 20th anniversary, they have outdone themselves. With such a stacked spread from start to finish, End of the Road Festival once again proves that even as the summer draws to a close, there’s no better way to wave it off.
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