End Of The Road Festival: Thursday round-up

Kicking off the weekend, End Of The Road’s Thursday has set up this year’s festival to be one of its best editions yet.

Set in the county’s Larmer Tree Gardens, the annual festival showcases some of the best in independent rock and folk music. This year’s festival is headlined by Caribou, Father John Misty, Self Esteem and Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory.

An impressive lineup kicked off the festival on Thursday afternoon, featuring a selection of upcoming artists including Youth Lagoon, Westside Cowboy, and EOTR Next Wave winner Daraa Tribes.

Meanwhile, shortstraw. opened the festival over at The Folly, followed by the likes of La Sécurité and Anna Erhard.

Headlining the iconic Woods Stage on Thursday night was Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, Van Etten’s recently launched project. The group emerged with the release of the seventh studio album by Sharon Van Etten, which was created in collaboration with her group, The Attachment Theory.

Immediately attention grabbing, the group’s set began with a pulsing opening, which gradually built into repeated choruses of, ‘Who wants to live forever’ underlaid by pulsating synth motifs. Most enticing throughout the set was the band’s whirring, synthy sound, which shone most when paired with Van Etten’s haunting vocals.

‘Women can headline festivals’, the American singer-songwriter proclaimed, after announcing that this performance marked their first time headlining a festival. And, with a strongly balanced lineup that feels refreshing amidst today’s festival circuit, which is plagued by a lack of female and non-binary acts, End Of The Road is leading the way in proving just that.

Highlights of Van Etten’s set included Afterlife and crowd-pleaser Seventeen. Both through rockier songs and mellower moments, the band gave a strong performance– you can feel the closeness of the group, whose contributions never failed to blend into a glorious soundscape.

Photography by Emma Last.