Between the solicitor wrangling, sorting and throwing away, packing, furniture buying, unpacking, cleaning and other necessary evils that come with finding a forever home, we also threw in a hectic schedule of weekends away, gigs, day trips. The highlight of which was End of the Road Festival. The whole experience was almost like some glorious dream! After days of rain I was starting to dread the idea of 4 nights camping but we were blessed with almost constant sunshine. We had rain during a few nights when we were tucked up in sleeping bags but the only time I got wet was for ten minutes during Iron & Wine (he was playing The Trapeze Swinger at the time so it could’ve rained frogs and I wouldn’t have cared!) and when I voluntarily stuck my head under the tap instead of queuing for showers!!
We saw some amazing sets – the Mountain Goats & Wilco lived up to all my expectations; the Unthanks played gorgeous traditional Northumberland folk, and threw in some clog dancing; Caribou kept me dancing until the early hours; Joe Pug, Deer Tick, Phosphorescent, Wintersleep, Caitlin Rose, the Low Anthem, Modest Mouse all wonderful! Dylan Le Blanc is a great young singer-songwriter (I'm ordering his album really soon), he played a secret set at 1am in the morning then I caught him again opening the main stage on the last day. The Felice Brothers were rowdy and great fun and really got the crowd going and singing along. I think that the Mountain Goats and Iron & Wine were my highlights though; we were right at the front singing along for both and they are both such intense and mesmorising performers. But apart from all the music there was so many other things going on! We sampled local cider & played mini croquet (unfortunately girls were soundly beaten by boys but I am so buying a set to challenge Hugh to a rematch in the garden!) I tried reflexology, there was a tea bus, a library in the woods, a twinkly woodland path lit with fairy lights, giant board games, a circus skills tent, storytelling, a dance floor complete with disco ball hanging from a tree branch, and also a sitting room complete with out of tune piano and armchairs (random bands would stop by and play a little set there!)
So we will definitely be going again next year, I think it's going to become an annual tradition. Unfortunately as with all festivals I couldn’t see everyone I wanted to, but I did have the opportunity to catch a couple of the bands I missed a couple of days later. I went to see Joe Pug again at a dear little venue in the rafters of a pub and he was playing with Horse Feathers and the Mountains & the Trees. I’m really glad I made the effort to go along, Joe is always great to watch so I was happy to see him play again, & the other two were both fantastic. I got chatting to Jon Janes from the Mountains & The Trees in between sets, he is from Newfoundland and is a really lovely and interesting guy. Turned out we’d been standing really near to each other during Iron & Wine’s set at the festival.The other highlight was three wonderful Josh Ritter shows. He & the Royal City Band put on a great show as always, and also threw in a couple of unexpected curveballs - a gorgeous and haunting 'Remnant' acapella at the front of the stage, the hilarious new song 'Sir Galahad' and a storming rendition of 'Once in a Lifetime' during Harrisburg. I also got to visit Oxford for the first time, and got a brief taste of student life, staying in the halls at Jesus College. I climbed up the Carfax tower for the best view of the dreaming spires and pictured Lyra and Pan clambering over the rooftops and skipping around the chimney pots.
Hugh and I also managed to grab the odd bit of time together, spending a day walking over the Roaches in the Dark Peak and delving into the crannies of Lud's Church. We need days like this at the moment, to remind ourselves of why we decided to buy a house together, and to make sure we don't forget what we love about one another.
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