Geese, Pulp & CMAT Smash End of The Road’s 20th Birthday Celebrations: 7 Best Moments

When weekend passes went on sale (and promptly sold out) back in March, the festival’s opening night headliner was kept under wraps. Judging by chatter in the build-up to Geese’s Thursday night (Sep 3) headline performance — which was only revealed in June — they were top of most attendees’ must-watch lists and acted as a superb bonus for those who took a leap of faith.

The NYC rockers paid them back for this commitment with a blistering set, one of their first as a headline act at a European festival. Songs from their acclaimed Getting Killed LP and its 2023 predecessor 3D Country were given heavier, broader arrangements in a live setting with each member giving their parts a gleeful twist. Cameron Winter’s vocals were frenetic in “2122,” as were Emily Green’s squealing guitar and Max Bassin’s heavy-hitting drumming; “Au Pays du Cocaine,” a tender highlight from Getting Killed, gave the EOTR faithful their first true singalong moment. Expect this to be the first of many glorious sets at the festival in the years to come.

Adult DVD feel absolutely purpose-built for festival sets. Led by Harry Hanson, the indie-electronic act view every show as an opportunity to convert the curious; the Leeds-formed group achieved that at their performance at Billboard U.K.’s showcase at The Great Escape back in May, and went one better on the Big Top stage on Friday (Sept. 4). Each song built with intensity and featured memorable hooks, particularly “Dogs In the Sun,” which had shades of Kasabian at their rowdiest, encouraging a packed-out tent to chant along to the punchy synth line.

End of The Road prides itself on keeping attendees on their toes with a smattering of secret sets. The Piano Stage saw intimate performances from Rostam Batmanglij, formerly of Vampire Weekend and Hayden Thorpe (Wild Beasts), while The Folly saw more elaborate surprises from Angine de Poitrine and Brother Wallace.

That element of convivial and joyful discovery extends into the Effing Forest where art installations, poetry workshops, and activities for punters young and old (the marble-racing course was consistently in action) meant that letting your curiosity and inquisition wander produced memorable results.

Prior to Friday night’s headline set, it had been almost a decade since Mac DeMarco’s last headline slot at the festival in 2017. In that time, he has embraced his role as indie’s chillest dude, moving past a previous era as the genre’s goofy ‘good-time guy,’ when his shows could unravel into playful schtick that occasionally overshadowed the music.

Now over five years sober, it’s all about maintaining the same marvelous, mellow mood that he crafts in his home studio. Songs from 2025’s Guitar are given a fuller — but not overpowering — facelift, with “Holy” and “Rock and Roll” matching the swooning tempo of fan favorites from 2014’s Salad Days and its predecessor 2. The hijinx were saved for the finale when a topless Mac performed an cover of Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature.” Didn’t see that one coming.

Saturday (Sept. 5) saw total dominance from the Irish trad-folk band Madra Salach who performed three sets, each full to brim. The first was an acoustic set at The Piano Stage but their second, a full band performance on The Garden Stage was a moment that cemented a hype that carried across the weekend. Judging by the multiple sightings across the site, no band aside from Pulp shifted more T-shirts from the merch stand, despite just having one EP to their name, 2026’s It’s a Hell of An Age.

Many attendees were likely just there to see what the fuss was about — who, or why, has a band like this scored support slots with Fontaines D.C. at such an early stage. That question will have been answered following the performance of “The Man Who Seeks Pleasure,” an original song that already sounds like a classic, full of intensity, yearning and darkness that held the crowd in stunned silence. Their versions of The Pogue’s “Turkish Songs of the Damned” and Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane Over The Sea” were similarly rousing and remarkable, led by Paul Banks’ passionate vocals and witty on-stage chatter.

By the time they played their final set of the day for another unannounced slot at The Folly stage just after midnight, it was one-in, one-out into the tented arena. What was a little secret is ready to blow up into the next level. 

Rumours in the lead-up to the show suggested that this could be one of Pulp’s last-ever shows. Saturday’s performance (Sept. 5) was their final stop in an 18-month run supporting More, the Sheffield band’s first LP in 25 years. Given the fact they have toured sporadically since their hiatus in the early ‘00s, there was a sense that this could be an emotional swansong. Frontman Jarvis Cocker put that to bed firmly saying that End of The Road “isn’t their final show” but there was an element of uncertainty when or where the next one might be. 

This, then, was an opportunity to say goodbye (for now) on their own terms: with a set full of B-sides, and seriously deep cuts — a treat for them to reflect their 40-year career after spending so much time in the performance touring More. “Deep Fried in Kelvin” from the His N’ Hers era (1994) got its first ever outing, and “The Mark of the Devil” from 1986 EP Dogs Are Everywhere was brought back into the set after a 34-year absence. 

It made for a slightly flat start to their first hour as even the most ardent fans might have struggled to find a way into the set. But by the time they reached songs from 1995’s breakthrough album Different Class — “Razzmatazz,” “Common People” and “Something Changed” — the crowd were appreciative and understanding of a band who wanted to do things their way for a final-night hurrah.

The Irish country-pop singer’s tour in support of third LP Euro-Country began in early 2025 and her Sunday night show was, truly, the end of the road for her. “This will be our last U.K. show for about two years,” CMAT revealed on stage to a genuinely shocked crowd. The 30-year-old has been an ever-present fixture on the festival circuit for years, grafting with shows that have eventually elevated her to headline status. 

This slot offered a fitting finale, she said, given that the alternative line-up festival is full of “the only music I listen to every year.” In 2021, she was also given a key early afternoon slot on the Garden Stage, well before she became a beloved character on the scene, one that blends deeply personal songwriting (“Take a Sexy Picture of Me”) and humorous ruminations (“The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station”). A stunning tribute to “the greatest woman that ever lived” in the shape of a cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” is proof of just how her confidence and stagecraft has grown over the course of this tour, and gave her breakout run a celebratory send-off.