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How to do it yourself: End of the Road Festival

It’s the classic story of starting a festival. You go to one you love, get inspired, have a few ciders, think ‘imagine what it’d be like if we do this’, have a few too many ciders, say ‘I’m definitely going to start my own festival’, get home, think ‘I’m definitely going to do it’, go to the day job, pay the rent, and rapidly forget about your dream.

Fortunately, forgetting to do it is the best option, the stress, the cost and the hours that go into creating a successful festival usually mean that most fall at the first hurdle. Other times of course, you get a festival like End of the Road.

“My friend Simon Taffe came up with this crazy idea to organise his own festival while in a field at a small festival back in 2005,” says co-organiser Sofia Hagberg. “He realised he couldn’t do it on his own, asked me if I wanted to team up with him, and together we followed our dream to make End of the Road what it is today.”

Inspired by his visit to Green Man, the story of the End of the Road inception involves Simon selling his house, then putting the personal touch on everything else. Anyone who has wandered through the fairylit woods in the Larmer Tree Gardens knows what a magical place End of the Road seems, and with a capacity of just a few thousand people, you get to see some big alternative bands in an unusually intimate setting.

“To me personally, festivals mean a chance to escape the daily grind as well as providing me with a space to find connection again,” says Sofia, “I feel that in this day and age of modern technology, such as email and mobile phones, we've all become a lot more isolated and so at a festival we can re-discover the lovely feeling of sharing positive experiences with other people, and be part of a great community.

“Festivals simply bring people together! And what's so good with music festivals is that you most likely share similar values and passions with the rest of the crowd, as you're into similar music. Although I don't want to generalise this too far, it may just be as simple as sharing an open mind, rather than sharing similar values and passions. At least that's how I feel about the crowd that comes along to End of the Road. They are lovely!”

It is that feeling of community that makes End of the Road feel extra special. But the feeling of community is generated by the little unique touches dotted around the site. There is a hidden piano in the woods where bands and punters alike can play and have a singsong, a light up dancefloor, table tennis tables, skittles, fantastical decorations ("they're mostly down to Simon!") and the Viking Kubb, an ancient Nordic game, one of many touches inspired by Sofia’s Scandinavian roots. And the inspiration of good music, good food and good times comes from all festivals great and small:

“Festivals in Norway and Sweden all have a very strong environmental and ethical grounding, which I find very inspiring.

“I went to Glastonbury for the first time in 2001 and I totally embrace the community spirit they have, as well as all the amazing music, food, healing fields and so on.

“It was Green Man where Simon got the enlightened idea to start his own festival. The main reason he got inspired here was because it was such a lovely site (Baskerville Hall) and it was a very small and intimate event (about 2,500 people) with a great line up, so it all seemed realistically doable. Little did we know then, how hard it would be to make it happen!”

But they did it, and the festival has gone from strength-to-strength, selling out for the first time in 2008, they did it again last year, and look to do it again this year.

“I think that a festival is never just about one thing... it's the wholeness! If you have the most stunning venue, but crap bands, no one will come... and vice versa. And if you go to a festival because you're into the music and the place, but all the other people are tossers, then it's more than likely that you wouldn't go back to the same festival again, no matter how good the music is. I would also say that the bands you put on is very closely linked to the people who come, and that's where we are so lucky, as all the music that Simon and I are into seem to attract a great crowd.

“I do believe that it's the smaller and more intimate festivals that are going to thrive, more so than huge events. And I also think that in order to survive, festivals need to get better at their environmental footprint (not just carbon footprint, all things environmental) as well as taking social responsibility.”

Here's an amazing video of a stage invasion of Zun Zun Egui's set at last year's festival