BEIRUT will headline their only UK festival this year at End Of The Road. After more than a decade of songwriting and globe-trotting, Zach Condon is a unique artist who continues to create some of the most intriguing and captivating music around and Beirut’s latest album Gallipoli is no different; transportive with an ear for evocative melodies. BEIRUT were the first band to headline the Woods Stage back in 2011 when it was brand new, making their return a very special moment.

With an Ivor Novello award and two Mercury nominations to his name after just two records, MICHAEL KIWANUKA has achieved a meteoric rise to acclaim. His 2016 album, Love & Hate, presented a bold new sound, exquisitely arranged, revealing an artist coming into his own. We are thrilled to welcome MICHAEL KIWANUKA to End Of The Road for the first time, for his first ever festival headline show.

Last seen at End of the Road in 2006, Joe Mount’s gang METRONOMY have since gone on to prove themselves as one of the sharpest British bands around. Now they’re coming back 13 years later to top the bill with their brilliantly idiosyncratic brand of lo-fi funk and back catalogue of instant pop classics. The Thursday evening headliner reached mythical status following their 1997 masterpiece Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. The audacious and uncompromising SPIRITUALIZED are revered for their transcendent live shows, with their ever enigmatic leader Jason Pierce’s performances at once poignant and defiant, they’re set to launch the festival into the stratosphere.

Festival organisers are honoured to welcome the award-winning, Grammy and Brit nominated COURTNEY BARNETT to End Of The Road for the first time this year – being a longtime fan of her witty, insightful observations and devastating levels of self-awareness, not to mention her electrifying live shows. Another singular and important voice in the current pop landscape, who also happened to release one of the best albums of 2018 (featuring as Pitchfork and The Line of Best Fit’s #1) with the triumphant Be The Cowboy, is the brilliant MITSKI. With an extraordinary live show that includes provocative conceptual art performance, we can’t wait for Mitski to ride on into Larmer Tree Gardens. Someone who is no stranger to End Of The Road is surrealist songwriter CATE LE BON. Having graced our stages as herself and as part of Drinks, the constant collaborator returns this year having co-produced DEERHUNTER’S acclaimed new album Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared; they also just happen to be joining us in August.

Celebrating 25 years together, LOW remain pioneers in their field and lead the charge of experimental outsiders infiltrating the mainstream on this year’s line up. With the most challenging and outstanding album of their career, Double Negative, topping Albums of The Year 2018 lists all over, we’re thrilled to welcome them back for the third time and for their only UK festival appearance this year.

One well known ‘mis-shape’ who’s never sought to fit and yet, is one of the country’s best loved musicians, is Jarvis Cocker. Appearing as JARV IS, his mysterious latest musical project, it’s part work in progress and part “the next best thing”. Either way, we’re thrilled to welcome our old friend back to End Of The Road. Also inhabiting this world of daring outsiders is Alabama-born visual artist and musician LONNIE HOLLEY. He’s revered by David Byrne, Bill Callahan and Daniel Lanois no less, and last year’s highly praised MITH album was simply stunning. American avant-garde performer and producer YVES TUMOR subsisted on the fringes until his 2018 album Safe in the Hands of Love set a new benchmark in experimental music. With a provocative live show to match, his set will be unmissable.

Meanwhile representing the soulful vanguard is Brooklyn based performer SERPENTWITHFEET with his ecstatic, one-of-a-kind voice that deals with heartbreak and the nuances of being queer and in love. Plus the unique and brilliantly progressive synth-pop duo VIRGINIA WING who conjure a vision of feminist utopia with their astonishing record Ecstatic Arrow.

Last year, the burgeoning British punk and noise scene had its moment at End Of The Road, which saw career-defining sets from IDLES, Shame and Fat White Family among others. There’s no hint of it slowing down this year, with a mix of established and new artists questioning the status quo at a time we need it the most. This year the punks are spearheaded by Nottingham duo SLEAFORD MODS, whose pummeling beats and searing attacks on the drudgery of daily life make for an arresting live show. We’re ecstatic to welcome legendary post-punk pioneers WIRE to perform for the first time – bringing some 40 years of experience with them as well as their 16th album, Silver/Lead, which confirms their ability to shapeshift and continually make landmark records. Newcomers FONTAINES D.C. – who merge krautrock infused riffs with poetic lyrics – will be joined by fellow Dubliners THE MURDER CAPITAL, who make blistering punk rock and have already been included in The Guardian’s Ones to Watch 2019. Last but not least, one of the most exciting new bands around, the enigmatic London six-piece BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD will be joining the uprising as well.

UK jazz is having a moment and drummer, composer and producer MOSES BOYD is undoubtedly one of the leading forces in this new wave of artists redefining the genre. Having won multiple awards and collaborated with Little Simz, Four Tet and Floating Points to name a few, Boyd’s sound is a heady brew of jazz and Yoruba chants, with hip hop and electronica-influenced beats. On a similar trajectory and having collaborated with Boyd, we are very excited to welcome NÉRIJA – a seven-piece London-based all-female jazz band whose expansive mix of sounds takes in jazz, soul and hip-hop, and lots more in between. One of Nérija’s members, saxophonist NUBYA GARCIA will also be performing a set. Known for her soulful and groove-driven solo work, she has also been a key component in a string of new and established artists including the South London arts collective STEAM DOWN. Founded by multi-instrumentalist Ahnanse to connect London based musicians and producers, they take in everything from Afrofuturism, grime, jazz and future soul and features some of the best musicians from the city.