Item: End of the Road Festival 2025
Rating: 8
Author: Jessica Jolly

The end of festival season is always bittersweet and a bit exhausting. The bucolic setting and multidimensional lineup of the End of the Road festival is the perfect way to wrap it up, feeling satisfied and ready for autumn.

The clashfinder caused a few more forehead wrinkles this year as I raised my eyebrows, unfamiliar with many folks on the lineup. But I kept the faith; these programmers never fail. In the middle of the festival stands a flowchart with recommendations based on lifestyle preferences and pop opinions. It led me down to C.O.F.F.I.N (if I’m a bit goth) and Tropical Fuck Storm (if I’m not.) I dutifully caught both; I’m goth on the inside yet always dressed in colours. Australian metal heads C.O.F.F.I.N were fantastic in the Big Top, one of the venues I can’t really take my 6-year-olds into. The F Storms brought a party to the main stage in the afternoon, not blowing us away but certainly making space for dance moves.

The top of the lineup showcased the festival’s Americana roots, with Matt Berninger headlining the Garden Stage on Friday. Glastonbury 2024 closed out with a phenomenal performance from his band The National, and I was a little worried the frontman’s solo offering would let me down. He was entirely himself, even jumping into the crowd for high fives during soundcheck, and delivering a set with beautiful vocals and writing. While the rich instrumentation of The National was missing, interesting covers from Joy Division to Nirvana filled that hole.

Saturday night, we got festival favourites The Viagra Boys on the same stage. I thought the Garden was perhaps a strange setting for the dance-punk boys, but the crowd and the band both rose to the occasion. I want them to play everywhere I go.

Sunday featured Father John Misty on the main stage, who brought a new, matured theatricality to his set of alt folk. His distinct 2010s hits sounded like kernels of time inside his newer, jazzier tunes, beautifully woven together for a big, euphoric set that would mark not just the end of the festival but the end of the season.

All that was wonderful. What wasn’t? It rained a lot this year. From Thursday night until Sunday morning, it never really seemed to stop. I was however, impressed with how well the facilities handled the deluge. My kids’ favourite attraction, the forest length marble run (they call it “marble run festival”) developed pools at the end, but the structure stayed intact. This may have been the little one’s first soggy music festival, and it didn’t deter them from wanting more of the experience.

Facilities all around have improved over the years. No payment signal problems, more food options, ease of logistics, even more beautiful artwork.. My only criticism of the End of the Road experience is that, for all it’s offerings to both music fanatics and families, it feels like two festivals. The different interests are never really combined, making it difficult for those who are music fanatics AND parents of young children to enjoy both. Few festivals pull this off; some place the kid’s field within listening distance of the stages. There is a homemade mini-golf outside of the Big Top, so I could hear the glorious sounds of Throwing Muses emanating out the exit as I kept an eye on the kids. But both this venue and The Folly are impossible to bring the little ones into, so I get a fair bit of FOMO even while in the midst. Plan ahead, parents, and make sure you and your friends/partners trade responsibilities for the lineup. One a bit older, kids can enjoy these venues with ear defenders, and mine will soon be headbanging in the Big Top with me.

That’s what’s most magical and inspiring about End of the Road. It’s a friendly, chatty festival, and I’ve had many conversations with people who are there with multigenerational groups, old punks who’ve been taking their kids for 20 years, the latter being young adults partying late in The Folly. And they all still go. People wouldn’t be attending any event regularly for decades unless it was always worth it, and End of the Road always is.