21 years ago Simon Taffe mapped out an idea for a new type of independent festival. Less than 12 months later he put on the first ever End of the Road at a cost of £450k. The capacity was 5,000; he sold 1,300 tickets and gave away another 7,000 to competition winners. Crucially, it didn’t rain and, against the odds, he made it work.

End of the Road has since become one of the UK’s most beloved festivals, still independently owned when a vast majority have been bought out by the Live Nations of the world. Previous headliners have included dream bookings Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom, Patti Smith and an endless parade of great and good artists in not only folk, indie and art-rock but, increasingly, electronica, ambient and experimental too.

This year’s festival has Pulp, CMAT, Mac Demarco and the recently revealed secret headliner, Geese.

On this episode of the podcast, I ask Simon about the challenges he’s faced over the last 20 years, who there is left to book, was he insane to give this thing a go in the first place, the favourite sets from festivals past, EOTR as a place for fine dining, and if it would be possible to start a festival like this from scratch today.

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Further reading/viewing

End of the Road website

The story of EOTR on the Music Made Me Do It Podcast

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