EotR 2025, The Season Finale

 Hello! Whilst our bodies have been back since Tuesday afternoon, its taken three days for our heads to catch up. Anyway, without further ado let me tell you all about End of the Road, the final festival of 2025.

On 26th August we left Walsall for Dorset, snapping an obligatory selfie at the motorway service station. Three and a half hours after leaving home we arrived on site, threw on our hi-viz vests, picked up our wristbands and cracked on with the build, trying not to get distracted by our festival family. After seven hours we'd almost fnished. 

In previous years we'd got to EotR on the Wednesday but this year decided to head there a day earlier. It made a huge difference having that extra day to potter about and make sure everything was perfect and, best of all, it allowed us to spend a bit of quality time with our mates before the gates opened. One of our neighbours owns a pub and had brought along a keg of Devon Jester to share...how civilised! 

It really is magical to be on site before the general public, watching everything take shape.

The last time we'd had a wet End of the Road was 2016 and the forecast for the weekend was grim. Normally we wheel a couple of rails outside the stall & site our mannequins alongside them, running out with plastic covers if the heavens decide to open. I decided to rejig the stall layout so that the rails and mannequins would remain inside throughout the festival. It was a bit of a gamble as having stock outside often tempts people to explore the stall further but I didn't want our clothes sodden and hoped that, after ten years of trading at the festival, most people know where and who we are.

Having rained torrentially throughout Wednesday night, the main walkway was already looking pretty muddy on Thursday morning.

Despite the rain, business was as insanely busy as always and a few hours after opening we'd already covered all our costs.

Three of our gorgeous mates - Tamzin was thrilled with her 1970s patchwork blouse and Jeni rocked this ethereal maxi dress (which once belonged to Nikki).

Sharon Van Etten's Attachment Theory headlined on Thursday night and drew a huge crowd despite the inclement weather. 

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Friday felt like Autumn but despite the miserable forecast, we only had a few showers and it was pleasantly warm in the sunshine. 

Another super-busy day but I did manage to run outside and dance to one of my favourite bands, the gloriously trippy Swedish band, Goat. 

 

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Carabou were pretty impressive, too! 

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One of our favourite visitors, never knowingly underdressed! 

This young woman was so pleased with the loopy blue cardi she'd bought the previous day she popped back to show how great it looked.

Andy & Liz were EotR first timers last year and loved it so much they came back. 

Saturday kicked off with drizzle and by mid-afternoon the rain was so torrential that several traders decided shut up shop. We soldiered on despite, at one point, the only sign of life within the arena was a couple of disgruntled seagulls but business wasn't too bad and we were surprised by how many people decided to treat themselves! 

The EofR crowd are a pretty hardy lot though and made an effort to support the bands on stage. The Peruvian DJ/producer, Sofia Kourtesis brought so much energy and joy to the arena and we were very excited when she popped into the shop after her performance. 

We caught the first part of Self Esteem's set before shutting up the shop and heading over to the woods for some Saturday night fun. By now the rain had stopped...hooray!! 

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We watched Swedish punk band, Viagra Boys, who were superb and when they announced that all the money they'd made over the weekend would be donated to Doctors Without Borders, the crowd went wild. 

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The highlight, as always, The Boat where we danced beneath the disco balls until the early hours to a phenomenal mix of vintage tunes. 

Despite staying out late we were up bright and early on Sunday morning. The sky was beautiful although there was a distinctly chilly nip in the air . It was the final EotR for our mate Molly (Vintage Relics) who's retiring from festival life (sob!)  We snaffled some choice vintage from her stall over the weekend, including this Dollyrockers maxi which I changed into immediately ...yes, it's August and I'm in my sheepskin hat...festival life is all about being prepared for any weather! 

Because of the weather most of our customers weren't able to leave the shop wearing their purchases like they usually do and we were so busy it was impossible to photograph everyone who tried on the clothes they bought. 

 The last day is always quite emotional as so many people we meet over the festival come in to say goodbye. End of the Road celebrate their 20th anniversary next year...we were punters long before we started trading there and we're already making plans for 2026.

Remember me mentioning the catalogue of disastrous breakages at Beautiful Days? We'd picked up a replacement mirror from B&M before leaving for Dorset and when we hung it up realised that it was seriously distorted - so much so that we had to write This mirror lies! on it as a disclaimer. Needless to say, it ended up in the skip on Monday morning, nobody needs that kind of negativity in their lives! 

The sun shone for Squid on Sunday evening.

Father John Misty headlined. He'd played a few years ago although I can't remember it, this year I was very impressed especially when he played my favourite, I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All. 

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After the main stage closed we packed up what was left of the stock and, on Monday morning, dismantled the structure for the last time this year. After hugging our festie family goodbye we climbed into the van and headed home to Portsmouth where we'd arranged to pick up two new (to us) heavy duty awnings the following day.

Of course, we had to photograph the Spoons carpet along with our charity shopped Adidas.

We saw the sea, had a night out in Wetherspoons and spent the night in an Ibis Budget hotel overlooking Pompey FC.

 

Seeing a man about an awning in Tuesday morning's torrential rain....

We came back a different way so didn't pass Gloucester Services for our usual posh pie, making do with some rather delicious wraps from Cherwell Services instead. 

End of the Road, as always you were phenomenal and unsurprisingly, when next year's early bird tickets went on sale on Tuesday morning they sold out within minutes. 

Thanks for reading! I'll be catching up with all I've missed in Blogland very soon but, more pressingly, we've a trip to plan....see you soon.