Festival season may be coming to a close but avid music fans can now use their Access Cards at the End of the Road festival.
This years festival season was fantastic and cardholders across the country have enjoyed faster entry eligibility with their Access Card.
Last weekend saw one of the last festivals of the summer showcase some of the finest music from some of the biggest names in indie, folk, rock and funk styles.
End Of The Road has a unique atmosphere, relaxed and friendly but they are serious about music, the site is designed in a way that festival lovers enjoy, the beautiful pleasure gardens at Larmer Tree form an ideal place to create a woodland wonderland, strewn with art installations and decorated spaces and the main stage is designed beautifully.
End of the Road is a small festival, with the stages, bars and village traders positioned relatively close to one another, there are a variety of tarmac, gravel and wood chip roads and pathways linking all of the festival spaces and facilities, all of the traders and food stalls are on level grass and have flat areas in front of their counters.
At Joe’s Green they have to protect the grass as it is the Victorian wedding Lawn so the Peacock Bar has a small step up into the marquee, The Disco Ship area is mainly woodchip and wooded forest floor with trees lying on the ground, there are some tree roots around that area, however that area is lit at night but can be difficult to manoeuvre when it’s busy.
Unfortunately due to space here we are unable to put a ramp up to the dance floor, the comedy stage is at the bottom of a steep hill in the woods, access to which is via a woodland pathway down a short incline, there are stewards at the gate to advise you of the route down and we have created a viewing area half way so you can have a good view of the stage without going all the way down.
To help with access, especially in wet weather, there is a tarmac road from the Accessible Campsite which will give you backstage routes straight up to the Gardens, Joe’s Green, the Cinema, Tipi Arena and into the main festival Village. In the festival Village there is a road that runs past the Big Top and down to the Woods Stage.
The Gardens, Wonderlands, Games Area, Library Stage, Piano Stage and Fairylight Woods are all linked with smaller gravel or woodchip pathways which are wide enough for wheelchairs and pushchairs, and even in the rain are pretty protected by the tree cover.
From the start Jason Lehner has been in charge of site decoration, so much of the End Of The Road aesthetic is his, they try to make sure that everything on site is the way that festival goers like it: good but not crazily expensive food (organic and local where possible), a wide range of local ales and other drinks at the bars, and caring and well-mannered staff, there is a musical edge to almost everything on site with the literary and film programmes being rich in musically-related material.
There are no VIP areas so you’ll often find musicians wandering about the site and watching other bands’ shows to which sometimes spontaneous performances result.
Enough words: if you have been to the festival before you know what we are talking about, if not why not go along next year and find out, we are proud to be working with EOTR and i am sure cardholders will have a great experience when it returns next year.
For more details about accessibility please visit the full listing below:
https://www.accesscard.org.uk/providers/end-of-the-road-festival/
