Although I've been back from the End of the Road festival since last Monday, in the words of Jarvis Cocker, I seem to have left an important part of my brain somewhere in a field. This post probably makes no sense whatsoever but I thought I'd better write something before our glorious week in Dorset becomes a distant memory.
We left home last Tuesday morning, stopping at Michaelwood Services for an early lunch and the obligatory Facebook photo, reaching Larmer Tree Gardens just after 1pm. The next two days were spent building and getting the stall ready for Thursday.
Although the public don't arrive on site until midday, we always open early so that the festival workers can shop before they start their shifts. The weather had been very disappointing in the week leading up to EotR and Wednesday was particularly wet and miserable but, after a showery start, Thursday turned out pretty good although we made the executive decision to keep the rails and mannequins inside just to be on the safe side.
When we used to do the vintage fairs we traded alongside Adele of Tallulah Vintage almost every week, now we only see each other at End of the Road and are always ridiculously excited to catch up. She didn't leave empty-handed, the fringed leather jacket was just one of her buys.
One of my fabulous regulars.....she loved this 1970s maxi so much that she left the shop wearing it.
Acts on the Woods Stage, directly opposite our shop, included YHWH Nailgun and Geese. When we waved off the last customers and rolled down the shop front it was half past midnight and all the other stalls were in darkness.
Intially the forecast for Friday wasn't great but the day ended up being dry and warm, unlike the washout that was last year. After spending most of the Summer in backless maxis and crop tops this was the most covered up I'd been during the day for months.
One of my favourite people! Her 1980s jumper was just one of this year's purchases, she bought the Moroccan belt from us many years ago proving that we don't sell disposable fashion!
In the past I've taken photos of customers leaving in their purchases but it was just too busy. I've not known trade this mad since our first festival after lockdown.
Always great to see this chap, he spends the Winter planning his festival outfits. This year marked EotR's 20th Anniversary and he'd pulled out all the stops!
Friday's headliner was Mac DeMarco, the young women who we chatted to were very excited about this but I can't say he did much for me (sorry, fella!) Far more exciting were the totally bonkers but amazing Angine de Poitrine and we were thrilled when their very cool manager, popped in and treated himself to a few choice vintage garms.
Once again we were trading from 10am until long past midnight.
On Saturday morning I left the stall for the first time since tuesday to visit Dylan. The daughter of festival trading mates, I've known her since she was a teenager. She's now a qualified herbalist and has her own range of skincare and herbal teas, Edava Botanics which she was selling at End of the Road for the first time. I'll share what I bought from her in my next post!
What a beautiful stall!
I popped over to the emporium to visit Adele who was wearing one of her amazing creations...
And to check in on my friends Caitlin and Mark, who trade as The Octopus Garden and were at End of the Road for the first time.
Saturday was sizzlingly hot and gloriously sunny. As Pulp were headlining I dressed Mr Kinky, our male mannequin, in a Jarvis Cocker-inspired outfit. Although sadly I didn't attract the King of Corduroy into the stall one of the punters loved the outfit so much he bought the lot!
This beautiful 1970s babe bought this cotton maxi from us the previous day and came back to show me how good it looked.
Another of my favourite gals (you might remember her from our pre-pandemic trading days at Indie Tracks!)
Pulp played for two hours and were f***ing awesome. Jarvis gets better each time I see him and his retro powerpoint presentation along with anecdotes, old photos and trademark wit won a lot of sceptics over.
As usual the temperature plummeted after sunset, hence the appearance of my sheepskin hat.
Saturday night is our night when we close the stall before midnight and go out in search of adventure. We'd planned to meet up with friends but the queues for both the Big Top and the Folly were huge so, accompanied by long-time neighbour Shaun from Shilpa Silver, we headed off into the forest for the outdoor disco at the Boat.
A few months ago I couldn't walk without a stick, my osteopath Michael is a miracle worker, I danced for hours!
Despite the late night, we were up and open by 10am, blasting out some feel good Sunday morning Northern Soul. Our first visitors, a lovely Irish girl and her partner, spent almost an hour trying stuff on and chatting about how much they loved "proper vintage" like ours. Halfway through our conversation it suddently clicked, this was CMAT, Sunday night's headliner and last year's brightest star at Glastonbury. I could hardly contain myself! After she'd made her final selection she kindly posed for a photo.
Sunday was another phenomenal trading day and, to add to the excitement, CMAT sent her keyboard player, Colm, over. He left with a cowboy shirt which he promised to wear on stage later.
By this point we'd sold over half our stock, the stall was looking rather empty!
Shilpa Silver is always busy but Jon managed to get a few photos whilst Pulp were playing. As always I treated myself to some exquistly made Mexican silver, I'll share what I bought in my next post! Their website: HERE.
Hello Shaun! See you at Glasto, if not before!
I'd been carting this vintage 1970s Jer-Sea maxi dress around with me all Summer, finally she got an outing! She was a Glastonbury purchase three years ago.
I can't even remember who played on Sunday ... Ty Segall, Super Furry Animals (sounding a million times better than their Beautiful Days set), Fat Dog....or that might have been Saturday, my brain was well and truly fried by then.
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That's our shirt!
At midnight, after hugging goodbye to all the amazing friends we've made over the last 12 years (and were just too busy to photograph them all), we packed up the remaining stock and collapsed into bed.
As usual, Monday was tiring (a five hour pack down followed by a four hour drive home) and emotional, (saying goodbye to our trading mates for the last time this season) but we consoled ourselves with stopping off for posh pies at Gloucester Services.
End of the Road, you were f*cking fabulous...see you in 2027!
