THE last big party of the summer is in fine fettle as it celebrates its 20th anniversary year. The eclectic music festival was awash with 6 Music dads in baseball caps clutching record bags, children wearing ear defenders carted around in trolleys, and festival OGs watching acts while sitting on camping chairs with a newspaper in hand. Yes, it’s End of the Road!

Irish pop-country sensation Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, aka CMAT, has drawn a noticeably younger crowd this year too and delivers an electrifying finale as the Sunday-night headliner.

Any doubters are instantly silenced by her star-quality stage presence and flamboyant sass. She flips the bird to Reform and its leader Nigel Farage, telling the crowd that the band’s tour van was held up in Dover due to anti-immigrant “protesters” who blocked roads at the port.

And in an affirming display of body positivity, she performs the latter part of her set shirtless in a nod to the vitriolic fatphobic abuse she’s received online.

The set, which includes a pitch-perfect cover of the late Dolly Parton’s Jolene, is slightly curtailed after the band leave the stage for 10 minutes while a medical emergency occurs in the crowd.

All being well, CMAT returns to close the night in style in what will be her last for a while after announcing a two-year touring hiatus to rest up following a lengthy non-stop schedule.

Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker also announces a touring break after performing a singular, one-off Saturday-night headline set stuffed with deep cuts and B-sides to the only festival crowd with whom he can get away with doing so.

The crowd cheer as he whips out a megaphone to perform a live debut of the experimental Deep Fried In Kelvin, a still-relevant tune about the failure of social housing through the lens of Sheffield’s now demolished Kelvin Flats estate.

But there’s more than enough time in the two-hour set for some singalongs, including Common People and even the most recognised song in the world, Happy Birthday To You, in tribute to the festival’s landmark year.

Yet End of the Road’s USP has never been the big-name headlines but the vast array of musical talent from acts that rarely perform the festival circuit.

There are tear-jerkers as black trans elder Beverly Glenn-Copeland and wife Elizabeth sing their poignant love-song duet, Harbour, on the bucolic Garden stage as birdsong can be heard floating across the breeze from nearby trees.

On the same stage, the female-fronted five-piece Nana Benz Du Togo deliver a climate message-driven danceathon of voodoo-inspired chants and polyrhythms created using recycled percussive instruments including PVC pipes played with rubber sandals.

And as festival favourites Super Furry Animals rattle out their hits on the main stage, a gem can be found in the form of singer-songwriter Westerman, who performs a cathartic stripped-back acoustic set under atmospheric lighting in The Folly tent, which notably includes Idol; Re-Run, a song about false prophets in an age of populism.

Unique live shows seem to be at every turn. Ireland’s ROIS (Rose Connelly) and her band are masked up as she showcases some impressive keening, a traditional vocal lament for the dead. The Swedish avant-garde composer Anna Von Hausswolff’s doom-drone laden set borrows from free-form jazz with her onstage band featuring virtuoso saxophonist Otis Sandsjo to perform select pieces from last year’s Iconoclasts album. 

There’s also a special stage show of Stop Making Sense, a live recreation of the 1984 Talking Heads concert film by 10-piece tribute act Slippery People that features oversized suits, onstage lamps and hits Psycho Killer, Burning Down The House and Once In A Lifetime.

The festival sees its longest-ever queue to get inside The Folly tent for spoken-word artist Joshua Idehen for the chance to see him perform his viral masterpiece Mum Does The Washing; his brilliantly funny, satirical critique of ideologies and isms simplified and explained through the set-up of your mother doing the laundry.

After hours DJ sets has Kelly Lee Owens mix in Underworld’s Born Slippy and Radiohead’s Everything In Its Right Place while the Bjork-like Ela Minus gives an energetic and versatile live show that sees her jumping from behind banks of synths to dance across the stage, contrasting her electronic sound with an ethereal singing style. The Boat Stage and a hidden radio shack also sees DJs spinning until the wee small hours.

There’s a carefree attitude to everything and everyone as some spend time in a gladed games area, explore the so-called Effing Forest with its intriguing art pieces, play a highly entertaining music intro and telly-tune bingo in the cider bus tent, rest their legs watching comedians at the sloping Talking Heads stage, or witness the many Q&As and secret sets, which have become a staple.

End Of The Road is certainly a well-oiled machine after two decades and this year is arguably the most vibing yet.

For more information see: endoftheroadfestival.