A look at the sets we are most looking forward to at this year’s festival.

End of the Road is finally here! The finest elegy to the music lover’s summer kicks off TOMORROW and runs all weekend, taking place in the scenic Larmer Tree Gardens on the border of Dorset and Wiltshire. Following our look at some favourite smaller acts last week (which you can take a look at here), here is our roundup of absolute must-sees for the weekend.

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory (Thursday, Woods Stage, 21.15)

A very fitting headliner for a festival with a history steeped in folk and Americana, there’s no doubt Sharon Van Etten’s triumphant End of the Road headline set will feel somewhat prophetic, the modern day indie-folk deity taking the stage on Thursday. Ethereal and otherworldly, Sharon Van Etten’s grandiose live spectacle makes for a spiritual experience.  From the haunting ballads of ‘Live Forever’ and ‘Afterlife’ to goth-disco banger ‘I Can’t Imagine (Why You Feel This Way)’, Sharon Van Etten’s latest album alone feels like a best-of from one of the finest writers of this generation. So if you were planning on attending End of the Road from Friday, change your plans right now and get down for the first day. Sharon Van Etten and The Attachment Theory are going to entrance us on Thursday evening for what could well be one of the greatest headline sets in the festival’s ever growing rich history. (Brad Sked)

Goat (Friday, Woods Stage, 19.15)

Not much more can be said about these modern-day masked behemoths of psychedelic rock that has not already been said. A pan-continental feast touching on everything from Afro-psychedelia and Anatolian folk to acid-garage sounds reminiscent of Japanese cult-heroes, Acid Mothers Temple, Goat are true warlocks of heady-fuzz. A live sound that can rival any act out there with its relentless cyclone of atom-splitting psychotropic riffs is paired with a visual spectacle of motley-laced attire, making Goat an unforgettable experience. Come Friday evening, if you’re after some mind-melting delirium (and why wouldn’t you be?) then head to The Woods Stage for Goat, who make a most welcome return after their rain-dance jamboree way back in 2016. (Brad Sked)

Viagra Boys (Saturday, Garden Stage, 21.45)

Delightfully incongruous to their setting, Saturday night Garden Stage headliners Viagra Boys, will no doubt deliver the mania, the wholesome environment set be plunged into utter pandemonium as soon as the spiralling carnival commences from the Swedish tour-de-force. This abrasive bedlam, led be lead singer Sebastian Murphy, is one of the greatest live experiences one can witness, Murphy’s sardonic lyrical content taking aim at toxic masculinity and revelling in absurd humour while nonetheless remaining poignant. Sounding like a bit of Fat White Family thrown into a toaster with a sprinkle of repetitious Neu!-esque krautrock, Viagra Boys are a bonkers sonic assault. From their most excellent 2018 debut LP in ‘Street Worms’ – featuring their iconic alternative Olympic anthem ‘Sports’ – to their latest outing, 2015’s ‘Viagr Aboys’, the six-piece are nothing short of a blast on record and live.  The racket is going to be whirling and the bodies will be hurling, and it’s going to be damn tremendous stuff. (Brad Sked)

Geordie Greep (Saturday, Garden Stage, 20.00)

Debut solo album ‘The New Sound’ has divided opinion, but those who are into it are really into it. With the split of black midi, Geordie Greep has expanded his sound in his own idiosyncratic direction, adding influences from salsa to city pop to the mixture of Beefhartian art rock and mathy flair that is already synonymous with his work. The excesses of showmanship that defined black midi’s latter years here forms into something more cohesive with Greep as the sole focus playing a character that is part Sinatra and part Marty McFly but all gleefully warped. Simply, we are very excited to see this show make its way to End of the Road. (Lloyd Bolton)

Katy J Pearson (Sunday, Garden Stage, 21.45)

Sometimes artists and labels really do go hand-in-hand most perfectly. Case in point: Katy J Pearson and seminal London imprint Heavenly Recordings. Bringing celestial cosmic country bliss, Katy J Pearson really has been a favourite for some time. From the 2019 debut single ‘Tonight’, a space-pop country ballad, to the synth-infused 2024 LP ‘Someday, Now’, Katy J Pearson’s repertoire of delightfully delicate folk-tinted stunners displays a continuous wondrous dynamism. A little more conventionally appropriate to the Garden Stage, she is sure to bring the ultimate remedy for the mind, body and spirit after multiple days in the festival fields. So show yourself some loving kindness and get down there. (Brad Sked)

Black Country, New Road (Sunday, Garden Stage, 21.45)

Whether you’re a fan of their earlier output or of their most recent offerings, it’s hard to not find Black Country, New Road’s evolution impressive. Surfacing as a skittish post-punk outfit that spearheaded the recent explosion of sprechgesang in UK indie, Black Country, New Road have morphed into the grand, exquisite and ultimately captivating band that has become one of the most interesting acts out there right now. The shift towards the expansive is most evident in their 2025 wonder ‘Forever Howling’, which sees the sextet beautifully braid baroque-pop, jazz and folk on what must be an album of the year contender. If you were lucky enough to catch their Glastonbury set either in-person or from the comfort of your own sofa, you will have gotten a mere glimpse of the immense musicianship that the London-via-Cambridge unit wields. Having gone from London’s sweatiest grassroots venues to headlining The Garden Stage at one of the country’s finest independent festivals, Black Country, New Road’s ascension has been utterly great to witness. Come Sunday evening, as the outfit closes things out, it’s going to be nothing short of a joyous experience amidst the verdure-laden Garden backdrop. (Brad Sked)

Squid (Sunday, Woods Stage, 19.15)

End of the Road has a special place in the hearts of Squid, who explained, on their debut at the festival in 2019, that this was the festival they all used to come to as teens, dreaming of some day gracing its stages. Since those early days of the hi-hat supremacy and rough-edged experimentalism that chimed with the British post-post-punk boom, the band have honed a unique sonic palette, shiny and insane like a city reflected in the glass of a skyscraper. A thread of consistency has been the live set, which has always remained one of the best on the circuit, completed by awe-inspiring kraut-jazz jams between songs that can take on as much power as any of the hits. Touring their third album ‘Cowards’, the band take the main stage on a stacked Sunday afternoon between Tropical Fuck Storm and Father John Misty. (Lloyd Bolton)

Sylvie Kreusch (Sunday, Woods Stage, 15.45)

 We are enchanted with Sylvie Kreusch’s music, which mixes alt pop and synth-driven psych behind her unique and evocative voice. Standout singles like ‘Walk Walk’ and ‘Sweet Love (coconut)’ will make for dancefloor highlights of the set, reminiscent of Magdalena Bay in the years leading up to their explosion into the mainstream. If you’re not quite convinced, perhaps sample the Lana Del Rey-inspired ‘Daddy’s Selling Wine In A Burning House’, or ‘Comic Trip’, which blends a kind of Stereolab kraut pop with the pulp glee of Brigitte Bardot. We’re plotting a gentle, folk-focused Sunday morning with Shovel Dance Collective, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Ryan Davis and Tucker Zimmerman, but then will then be looking to Kreusch’s pop eclecticism to get the party started on that final night. (Lloyd Bolton)