Simon Taffe was in the painting and decorating business when he decided to put on his own festival. It was 2005, and he was in the crowd at All Tomorrow’s Parties, the era’s zeitgeisty alternative music festival. “I drunkenly started writing out silly numbers about costs, literally on the back of a ripped-up cigarette packet,” he recalls. Taffe was 25 and had no experience in the music industry – but how hard could it be?
The question was: how far was Taffe prepared to go to get the first edition of End of the Road up and running? Sell his own house? Ask a mate to remortgage his? Rack up losses of nearly £500,000? The answer to all three questions was yes. “There were so many points we almost pulled the plug that first year because we were just losing so much money,” Taffe says. “There were a lot of people advising me to just walk away. I was too stubborn.”
End of the Road celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with a stellar line-up headlined by Pulp, CMAT and Mac DeMarco. With a capacity of just 13,500, it has long since been a jewel in the UK’s festival crown. It is much-loved for its independent spirit, carefully and personally curated eclectic line-up of music, comedy, film and literature, and picturesque, bespoke surroundings at Larmer Tree Gardens near Tollard Royal, Wiltshire.
