Pulp top the bill at 20th End of the Road Festival

News imageBurak Cingi Jarvis Cocker stood on stage singing into a microphone, with his finger points off stage towards the camera and a blue light behind him. He is wearing a brown blazer and glasses.Burak Cingi
News imageRachel Juarez Carr Crowds of people looking towards a stage with a musician stood on it and smoke in the air.Rachel Juarez Carr

Pulp headlined the End of the Road Festival on Saturday and ended their set singing Happy Birthday to the event
The festival at Cranborne Chase in Dorset celebrated its 20th anniversary

A sell-out crowd of 15,000 helped celebrate the End Of The Road Festival's 20th birthday this weekend, in one of the final events of the UK summer season.

Britpop luminaries Pulp closed the mainstage on Saturday night at the four-day event, near Blandford Forum, Dorset.

The event's anniversary line-up also included Irish indie-pop singer Cmat, New York art-rockers Geese and Canadian singer-songwriter Mac DeMarco.

More than 140 acts performed across the five music stages which showcased a mix of indie-rock, folk and alternative artists.

The festival was set in rolling countryside on Cranborne Chase – a protected National Landscape - and hosted comedians including Fern Brady and Adam Buxton in its Talking Heads arena.

Sheffield indie-rockers Pulp have never appeared at End Of The Road before but the band's frontman Jarvis Cocker has regularly attended and performed a headline solo Garden Stage set in 2019.

Throughout the set which included classics like Common People, This Is Hardcore, and Underwear, Jarvis treated the crowd to a sermon of Pulp history, with slideshows of artwork, postcards, and visuals from throughout the years.

Jarvis sang Happy Birthday to the festival and toasted to another 20 years before telling fans he will be taking a break for a while.

This year's event comes at the end of the warmest summer in the UK since records began in 1884, according to provisional Met Office figures, during which wildfires have been common across the country.

Issuing guidance ahead of the festival, organisers warned that the ground and vegetation remained "extremely dry" and that barbecues and open fires were "not permitted anywhere on site".