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What? How did I miss this? Where did they play?

Lanterns on the Lake and HEALTH did it for me.

The Woods Stage was necessary after the mess that was the Fleet Foxes gig from a few years back. I just hope the capacity doesn't keep expanding. It's at a comfortable level now; anymore and it'll be Glastonbury-lite.

But still the finest festival Britain has to offer.

Plenty of good stuff: HEALTH, what I saw of Tune-Yards, Bob Log III actually getting some girls to be bounced on his knee this time, the remarkable turnout for Allo Darlin', the rather sweet sight of Josh T Pearson being unable to stop giggling, the enormity of the singalong for The Rat, Other Lives, Wild Beasts, The Leisure Society, Dan Mangan, Emmy The Great, Big Deal, CYHSY doing Add It Up with Gordon Gano, Gano's own violin-led version of Blister In The Sun, Brakes of course (Consumer Producer A Chicken Or An Egg!)

Thought the Woods stage worked as well as it could, though oddly there was a bit of bleed from the Big Top on Sunday only (and not just down there, you could hear Wild Nothing during Josh T, as he himself remarked upon). Bar three or four of the new songs Okkervil River pretty much played the same set as two years ago, right down to Will's solo A Stone. The route down to the comedy stage was practically vertiginous. Shame there weren't more (not quite any, I saw the Cornshed Sisters on Friday) woodland piano sets this year, anything after about 6 seemed to be drowned out by the disco, though I did chance across Laura Marling being recorded by I think Rockfeedback in the woods (which looked really pretty this year) The Tea Bus had a magnet-like effect on me. Met up with pretty much nobody I'd told I'd meet up with.

everyone was really pleasant, the staff were lovely, relaxed security, pretty good weather on the whole.

highlights:

Woods
Kurt Vile
Wooden Shjips
Wild Nothing
the Fall
White Denim

big fan of the Burrito stand too.

Same organisers, 8th-10th June in Welbeck, near Worksop (about as far north in Nottinghamshire as you can go without crossing into South Yorkshire)

Highlights:

Wild Nothing
Twin Shadow
Mogwai
Bob Log III
Playing Scrabble and Articulate on the Wonderland Lawns on Sunday afternoon
The Tea Bus
Rue Royale
Other Lives
Allo' Darlin'
BRAKES
Timber Timbre
Diagrams
Kurt Vile
The amazing selections of food and drink and the fact you can wander about with your own drink
Really smooth journeys there and back, no queues for the shuttle to Salisbury this morning
Every loo I used had paper *and* hand sanitiser which is incredible really
That little bit in the woods past the disco with a million fairy lights and origami cranes <3
No cunts pushing past during bands or taking photos or generally being twattish. I was amazed at the absolute silence Joanna Newsom was granted for her set even towards the back of the crowd.

Lowlights:
Really disappointed with Zola Jesus
The disco in the woods being really quiet on the Saturday night
It was really fucking cold last night

Genuinely awesome festival, will be back next year I expect.

this was my second EOTR, and I'm starting to find it hard to imagine not going next year.

Highlights:

The Walkmen - an absolute joy, despite missing the first few songs
Mogwai - magical Saturday night headline set, and the sound was perfect
HEALTH - utterly exhilarating
Best Coast - her songs had so much more kick live
Joanna Newsom - not quite as perfect as the full-band set I saw in London last year but wonderful all the same
Enjoyed a lot of other bands too but those ones stand out.
Dancing in the woods
The amazing selection of food once again
The awesome weather on Friday
The atmosphere. Quite possibly the friendliest place in the world.

Lowlights:
Missing Will Sheff's secret set in the woods because I didn't know about it :(((
Missing a few things I wanted to see (especially Wild Nothing) because of stewarding shifts, and not really having time to do the other stuff like cinema tent, board games in the wood and such. If my friends and I do stewarding again next year we'll do a nightshift so we don't miss anything.
How cold it was when the sun went in on Saturday and Sunday
Being hungover most of Saturday
Walking in on two of my friends (who had just met, through me) having sex in my tent on Saturday morning. We're laughing about it now but it was a bit weird at the time.
Zola Jesus being too quiet, as everyone seems to have noticed
All the bloody wasps. Turns out they like hi-vis jackets.

Highlights were:
The amount of awesome bands on the Garden Stage (my favourite stage) this year. Managed to see every band there on the Sunday.

Megafaun (this band is ridiculously good, love them so much)
Woods - ditto above
Josh T. Pearson
M. Ward
Gordon Gano & The Ryans
Doug Paisley
White Denim
Mogwai
John Grant
Caitlin Rose
Micah P. Hinson
The Walkmen
The Fresh & Onlys
Timber Timbre
Drum Eyes
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

The food - chilli dogs and burritos especially.

Late night Tipi sets - James Yorkston was awesome.

The sound quality pretty much all weekend bar one or two sets.

Good toilets, campsite etc. despite the capacity increase.

Lowlights:
tUnE-yArDs
Bob Log III
^ it must be just me because everyone seemed to love both of these.
FOUND - too quiet.
Wooden Shjips weren't bad but a bit disappointing despite the nice light show.

The Garden stage being demoted. The Woods stage was nice but pretty ordinary compared to the Garden. There were also a couple layout changes I wasn't too sure about but I guess these are all pretty minor things.

...good toilets. My only experience of festival toilets is Reading.

Positive:

* The comedy stage setting was beautiful and I really appreciated the hosting skills of Pappy's, who convinced the crowd to greet arriving acts with the Jurassic Park theme song and got someone to throw their top at the stage
* Seeing and hearing Gordon Gano was a real treat; I remember overhearing Add It Up being played in the distance and hadn't realised that CYHSY managed to get GG to join them on stage for it.
* Monkey-onna-Stick being used as a guitar slide by Andy White during Brakes Tipi Tent set
* The endearing shambles of Ringo Music Bingo
* Great sets by bands/people I'd never heard of before, including Dan Mangan, This is the Kit, Nathaniel Rateliff, Austra - I put this down to the solidity of the booking.
* Bands upping their game for the festival - best sets I've seen from the Walkmen, Mogwai and Gruff Rhys ("WOAH")
* Taking a wrong turn trying to find a bar and discovering Beirut playing in one of the bandstands near the Garden stage on Friday night
* Getting lost in fairy-light-lit woods
* Friendliness of fellow festival-goers

Negatives:

* Arriving too late to see the Growlers
* Patch of mud next to the water taps

Brilliant festival as usual. Can't be bothered to write out a long list but I will say the HEALTH set was one of the most intense things I've experienced and seeing Bob Log twice in one day was pretty special. God damn.

What an amazing festival. The beard per-person ratio was around 0.4 I reckon.

My band played on thursday on the tipi tent stage - I was surprised to see so many people there so early.

I was amazed at how good Josh T Pearson was. His performance was utterly captivating. Just when I was getting disillusioned with the "singer and guitar" format, he comes along! (I know he's been around for a while, but I've only just found out about him.)

possibly my favourite EOTR so far.
Too many highpoints to list, but Mogwai, Tune-Yards and HEALTH were probably my favourite sets.
The food once again was great, and I thought the site handled the capacity increase pretty well. It was good to see the Garden Stage fuller during the day.

Please say that somebody else saw the guy face-plant while trying to do a 2-person forward roll near the Woods Stage?

there were lots of moaners on the eotr board about the increased capacity but I think it was fine, you could get a good view of any band on any stage if you wanted, could normally find a bench when eating, easy to find tents space even though we arrived on friday, didnt have to wait long for games in the woods, maybe more showers needed though. Thought they did a good job with the new woods stage, looked nice at night and could always see the bands, seemed more like a big headlining event for the headliners and you could come and go as you wished rather than the garden stage being rammed, only criticism and its pathetically minor, they could have done a better job decorating it, those planks of wood just looked like they were found on a building site but from a distance it looked good. Crowd was good, I only counted three hipsters, think the camping chair brigade have got a little out of hand, im sure they just park their chairs by the garden stage and stay there all day regardless of who is playing, also parents take your kids on a proper holiday

Highlights: Josh t pearson always gives the highest entertainment to time on stage ratio great music and banter, best coast really good sunny start to the festival, austra kind of out did zola jesus, thought zola jesus was good didnt think she was too quiet rather her drums were too loud if the drum/synth balance was better she would have been better,

midlights: Phosphorescent, clap your hands say yeah, beirut, mogwai,

lowlights: micah p hinson, the treacherous infinite path from coach to camp site, too many good bands meaning no chance to watch a film

ban all teenagers?
thats not really the attitude a festival goer should have. be more accepting. its a good festival with an awesomne diverse mix of people. maybe you should suggest to ban the jews while at it.

Cracking weekend.

Highlights:
Joanna Newsom: 2nd best performance from her I have seen beaten only by the Ys tour at the Sage with the Northern Sinfonia orchestra behind her. Solo worked better than with the band I reckon.
Allo Darlin: My new favourite band. Only got into them a couple of weeks ago but they were amazing live and they seem genuinely nice people. The bassist is the happiest man in music. So glad they got the crowd they did.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: Love them and they played a good mix of my favourite songs plus some new ones which have got me excited for the 3rd album.
The Fall: Brilliant and Mark E Smith was on top form.
Okkervil River
The Unthanks: From my neck of the woods and the only time Ive seen them I had to travel to Dorset. Stunning though.
The Fresh & Onlys
Brakes: So much fun. And they did Cheney twice which was amazing.
Spending 2 hours on Saturday getting drunk in the carpark listening to Half Man Half Biscuit.
The forest: the disco, the area with the fairy lights, the wonder lands, everything combined to make a unique experience at a festival.

Lowlights:
Missing Laura Marling (I did get to see all of Kurt Vile though so its not too bad)
Missing Twin Shadow
Not ever finding the comedy stage
Worst sunburn I have ever had (and for a ginger bloke who burns on a quick walk down the shop in Sunderland, thats saying something)
The Walkmen: I'll be in the minority but that was one of the worst performances by a band I have ever seen. Hate them.

Apologies for going on a bit but really its just a great little festival and there's a 99% chance Ill be back next year aswell.

but not been to the last two (the line-ups haven't felt as essential to me unfortunately, but still quite good), but am curious as to how much the capacity has increased by, seeing as a couple of people have mentioned it?

and i thought it was just as great as the first! (last year)

As others have said I thought the new stage and general layout worked really well.

Highlights:
- Mogwai (Big)
- Josh T Pearson (Bants)
- Dan Mangan (Singalong)
- Wild Beasts (Groovy)
- Tune-yards (Loops)
- Tinariwen (IS OK!)
- loads of other good musics. I basically enjoyed everything I saw.
- The food! So much good stuff. Everything was NOM. Lots of fun had choosing each meal :)
- Comedy! So much better than before - spent about an hour there on sat afternoon and laughed my arse off. Tony Law and Phil Kay both ruled.
- Cinema! Caught a couple of things, including the amazing How To Train Your Dragon. Wish i was 6 years old so it could be my favourite film.
- Forest Disco! Good times in the forest. Was the dancefloor area bigger this year? It could still do with being about twice as big again really, and as someone else said some 'dancier' (read: electronic) music later on would be good too. I think it would work best with the indie/rock and roll kinda stuff in the early evening (like 6-12am) and then more club-type stuff from 12-3 or something. idk.
- The weather! Was worried looking at the forecasts before but couldnt have asked for much better really. In a funny coincidence I ended up using the poncho i bought EXACTLY one year before for the first time (before Iron and Wine, just as it started to rain, and then stopped raining just after i bought the poncho) at Josh Pearson (who is also an american dude with a big beard playing solo with a guitar).

Lowlights:
- erm.
- The walk in was pretty rough.
- Some people had very poor bar manners (got pushed in front of at the bars several times)

Was a great little festival. No overcrowding that could see, barely any queues of note for any bars or food outlets. Weather held brilliantly until the Sunday evening, but was indoors for the most part anyway then.

Highlights for me
Allo Darlin' - never heard their stuff, was blown away
Beirut - Tremendous as always, the solo encore was amazing
Kurt Vile - My wife and I had seen Laura Marling before, so checked him out. Glad I did, brilliant
M Ward and Okkervil River on teh Gardens stage saturday night
The Garden stage was just a great setting
Doug Paisley in the Tipi on Sunday evening - good bants and lovely chilled stuff
Brakes - Top TOP set (No pineapple though!!)
Other Lives - just superb
The cider bus
The Story food!!!!

Low lights
Wild Beasts - what is all the fuss about? Left after about 20 minutes. Really boring
Wild Nothings - Again, a little dull
Missing Mogwai cos my wife didn't want to see more of the "post rock nonsense" - serves me right for forcing too much Explosions in the sky on her
Missing Joanna Newsome cos my wife had a bad back (due to being 10 weeks pregnant) so we left early

It's still the best festival around, but this time wasn't quite as magical as the others. The capacity increase was fine in terms of numbers, but there was a noticable increase in the wanker quotient: I saw toilets trashed and heard that some of the woods art was trashed - this sort of thing never used to happen. Seemed to be more people who were there "to be at a festival" or to get loud and drunk with their mates, rather than just to dig on the amazing music.

That said: still far fewer wankers (and more good people) than anywhere else, the toilets were better than most places, the food was uniformly amazing and the lineup was good from top to bottom. Last year was amazing because 4 or 5 of my favourite bands played, this year there was more quality right through the lineups, without being (for me) any amazing standouts.

Musical highlights:
Wild Beasts
Allo Darlin'
Mogwai
Other Lives
John Grant
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
The Black Angels
Tune-Yards
Brakes
Leisure Society
Midlake

Not as good as I hoped:
Phosphorescent (others raved, I preferred his full-band show last year)
Best Coast
Walkmen (I don't know why, even though I liked the songs, it just didn't seem like a great gig, for some reason. I left before The Rat, though).

and it is still the best (may go to No Direction Home instead next year though for a change). Capacity increase was noticable in the forest disco and the bottleneck by the Peacock bar, but that was about it.
Bob Log was amazing as ever (particularly the Tipi set), loads of bands had their a-game out as a result of genuine joy at playing such a brilliant festival (has anyone ever seen so much chat and smiling from Mogwai?). New comedy area was ace (not all the comedy was though), whole area around the croquet was beautiful. Food and drink great as ever.
The worst thing about the changes, by a mile, was getting in and out. They really have to sort that path out it was pretty nasty. Doubt the farmer owning the adjacent field was too happy about people going round the side either! Woods stage did its job, like many people though i couldnt help but think most of the bands on there would have been enhanced by being on the garden stage (and a lot of people probably bought a ticket with the anticpitation of joanna, mogwai et al. on the garden stage).
Musically, Bo Ningen, Mogwai, HEALTH, Joanna, Drum Eyes, Wild Beasts, The Walkmen, Black Angels, Tune-yards and CYHSY all nailed it for me.

warning that the 2012 early bird allocation will probably sell out within hours.

And I couldn't have enjoyed it more. I felt like the capacity was just right. You need an atmosphere as well as having the numbers at manageable levels.

I particularly enjoyed Okkervil, Beirut, CYHSY, 'Allo Darlin' (What a brilliant atmosphere between band and audience. Really touching), Wild Beasts, Laura Marling, Willy Mason, playing Pucket, the amazing organic burgers, the equally amazing bhatti wraps, hot cider when it got a bit chilly and the general ambeince of the woods and the Garden Stage. What a gorgeous place to experience live music.

My only gripe would be the pathway into the site is ridiculous. How I didn't stumble over a rock and crack my face I really don't know. Also, while I appreciate the family friendly vibe, why don't people just take their kids on an actual holiday that they would enjoy? Weirdly vast amount of children running around.

Oh and Emmy The Great just did not work for me. I love those songs on record but I was just completely bored throughout the set.

Third time for me at EOTR. I thought the crowd increase was fine, and whilst I loved the smaller capacity in previous years it'd be a bit selfish to stop others seeing such a great festival (and also to expect the organisers to make less of a profit).

Highlights:
- Josh T Pearson was simply incredible, one of the best sets in a long time. Second row dead centre, with some light rain and the evening dusk. He could have played for three hours and I wouldn't complain.
- The food was uniformly excellent, Pie Minister is amazing.
- The Fall were surprisingly enjoyable, I think it helped that their sound was pretty good compared to the two previous occasions I saw them.
- Really enjoyed the Walkmen, they made an impressive racket and of course the singalong to the Rat was immense.
- Okkervil River performed a strong set.
- Helping a guy called Casper making the crowd stand up for James Yorkston's tipi tent set...due to the sitting down people nobody else could get into the tent.
- The incredible selection of alcohol. Still recovering as a result.
- too many positives to list them all here.

Downsides:
Only catching 20 minutes of Mogwai as i've seen them three times this year so i went to see OR with my friends.
There were a few wankers, but barely any really especially compared to say Glastonbury.
- due to a knacked knee I had to limp about over the weekend.

Such a great festival, will have to go again next year.

it was fucking excellent. For me the Fall was the set of the weekend, i've seen them many times and they seem to have hit another peak. Killer version of 'white lightning'.
little bit bigger than i was expecting and only bothered with the woods stage for j newsom, she was pretty great.
loved woods, kurt vile, fresh & onlys, megafaun, m ward, allo darlin. sad to miss phosphorescent though he's better with a band. apparently other lives were great but missed that too.
bit sad there was no jeff lewis / wave pictures / kimya / hayman on the bill but that's just me being a dick.
played a little set by the croquet lawn, that was fun. I have a beard and enjoyed the ale. And disco on sat night was blinding.

- Are the festival organisers cool with security guards shining lasers into the eyes of people smoking in the big top? Im not a smoker but got a couple in the eyes from poor aiming on people next to me. Not really that into it.

- Are Other Lives fucking amazing? Yes. Yes they are.

- Have Dry the river bought a small yaucht and sailed it up their own collective arsehole?

was incredible. I wasn't expecting much given the live stuff I have heard in the past, but that set was so great. His voice is really coming into its own and his band are really neat. His solos are getting deadly too. Awesome stuff.

Austra were really good as well. Sounded almost identical to the record but all consuming. Again - vocally stunning - Stelmanis' voice is the real thing.

The sound in the big toip tent was great. The sound on the main stage was consistently ruined by overly big swampy bass - especially Wild Beats, no need for it at all. Not sure why that was. Luckily it wasn't there for Mogwai or that would have been carnage. Beautifully pretty set from them too, possibly one of my favourite times I have seen them. San Pedro is a bit of a real rocker isn't it?

That's pretty much all I have to add. Really lovely festival. I liked that it wasn't overcrowded at all, always a lot of space around and none of that herds-of-cattle-like feeling bigger festivals have - even Green Man has got a bit like that.

I may well have been one of those middle class families. Dunno - me & Wife & 3-year old. Seems liek half the audience was made up of that demographic. Was pretty quiet SUnday afternoon when all the families had left. Bit of a raw deal for bands to be playign to half empty fields the whole time.

And I thought it was brilliant! Really, an excellent little festival. The site was very attractive (particularly the Garden/forest areas), the weather was mostly great, food tasty etc.... Lots more other positives too. The only bad feature that i would pick out was how cold it got at night, but that can't really be helped. It certainly didn't feel overcrowded, as people on the efestivals forum seem to think, but i suppose i don't know what it was like before. Certainly more intimate and less crowded than Glastonbury for example.

Musically, some of the highlights were Tune Yards, Bo Ningen (brilliant ending to their set), Health, Gruff Rhys, Wooden Shjips, Mogwai (FEAR SATAN - sublime), Josh T Pearson (remarkable entertainer skills, plus i met him after), and Brakes (who were probably the most fun of the whole festival, and managed to play 30 songs in about an hour). Lots of other things i saw bits of or sat on the grass near the back off, which was also very nice.

Would definitely go back again, seems like a real treat of a festival. Going to keep an eye on No Direction Home too...

2nd year in a row for me and think it is still a great festival. Don't have much to compare it to as i haven't been to another festival since early 90's but christ what are people complaining about??? Beards.....huh? Drank good booze, ate good food, watched some great bands and laughed my arse off for 3 days. Life's what you make it dudes.
Now, anyone else see the Growlers late night Friday in the Tipi Stage? Stone.Cold Geniusness.x

It was a strange festival. There were some great bands playing notably Bo Ningen, The Fall, The Growlers, Mogwai, and especially Kurt Vile
But I thought the crowd were really dull.
I don't want a festival to be full of idiots and wankers either but End of The Road was more like a church fete.

I only actually know 2 of their albums and a few other assorted songs, but that set made me want everything they've ever done.