Creaturemag at End of the Road Festival 2010
Welcome to our review of End of the Road festival 2010. We’ve summed up the best bits from our weekend and kindly published it here for you along with some great festival artwork created especially for End of the Road. Enjoy… (Image above, EOTR program cover by Kai Wong).
Contents:
1. Intro
2. The Music
3. The Art
4. The People
1. An Introduction
Each festival has it’s own character, it’s own traits and idiosyncrasies that are perfectly unique and special to them. I like to think of End of the Road as a funny little creature, intimate, smiling and polite. Full of sparks of imagination and creativity. It says everything with a smile on its face, a cheeky little festival youngster and one that is becoming more loved and popular year on year.
Image by Marc M Gusta
End of the Road Festival is set in a caressing and reassuring environment in beautiful Victorian Gardens at the Larmer Tree on the Dorset/Wiltshire border. The setting is only one of the things that makes this festival extra special, Peacocks and Macaws roam freely and for three days festival goers are eased into a slightly different way of living. Thankfully we were blessed with sunshine too.
My day times were spent playing and teaching Croquet on the lawn as part of Croquet East. We entertained well and were rewarded by an overwhelming response from the EOTRoaders, it was a pleasure to see such an eagerness and demand for the game. Approximately 400 people played over the three sessions held throughout the weekend. Some people just couldn’t go without their daily hit.
2. What about the music?
Just as engaging as the setting itself is the hand crafted line-up of performers. In terms of music End of the Road is our perfect festival, full of musical delights and golden surprises with sneaky sets from Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan and Willy Mason on Thursday night plus loads more great acts taking to the stages over the weekend.
Here are some of our highlights:
CW Stoneking opened up at 12 on Friday with his backing band the primitive horn orchestra. Mr Stoneking plays marching bluesy minstrel songs with thumping drums and a mixture of brass instruments and some great banter in between songs.
Caitlin Rose played a wonderful set in the Local on Saturday and went on to better it on Sunday night in the big top filling in for an absent Steve Mason. Caitlin took to the stage well with a set of cleverly crafted country songs and simply charmed the socks of the audience, she’s a humble, down to earth and genuinely talented songwriter and performer.
Image by Kate Eggelston-Wirtz
Iron and Wine graced the Garden Stage with a raw and arresting set on Saturday evening. I have been eager to see this for quite some time and was not let down.
Django Django also lived up to expectations with upbeat electro-tinged stomping songs punctuated by especially impressive percussion. A band with great promise.
Other acts we loved included: The Low Anthem for providing the soundtrack to our last game of Croquet on Sunday night. Singing Adams (Steven Adams), The Antlers and The New Pornographers, to name but a few. We also heard great things about The Ruby Suns, Forest Fire and Wolf People. We could go on. Check out the full line up here: EOTR line up 2010/
Image by Kate Eggelston-Wirtz
3. What about the art?
It’s the attention to detail that’s impressive. The thought and time taken to consider each art installation and each little area of the festival from the Library to the games area to the healing camp to the secret disco and the magic forest dripping in fairy lights. The EOTR team have created this perfectly tailored atmosphere surrounding and encompassing the festival goers and encouraging them to interact.
Image by Nikki Pinder
Now in its 5th year Creature has been in attendance since the birth of EOTR in 2006, we have seen how it’s developed, how each year they tweak and change and improve each aspect. The time and effort invested in the decoration of the site really shows and perfectly compliments the music and setting.
4. What about the people?
Talking to a lot of festival goers over the weekend it seems that this festival is definitely one that people return to again and again. Walking round you see faces from years past, old friends who met at EOTR being reunited each year through a mutual love for the festival and every aspect of it’s entertainment. We really feel a part of EOTR and are proud to be involved with such a well loved and thoughtfully executed event.
Image by Julie Vermeille
End of the Road is a friendly festival, suitable for families too, everyone is catered for, the loos are looked after and the entire event is organised brilliantly. You can just tell that Simon and Sofia and their team have a passion for this and have considered in much depth how to entertain 5000 people for the weekend, you simply must experience it.
E-festivals have published lots of photos of the event here: Eotr 2010 photo gallery
The great news is we’ve been invited back again next year for some more Croquet fun.