Music from across the world finds a shared home at the final day of End of the Road 2024

Eastern folk resonates amongst whispering trees. Ghanaian Frafra gospel pulses through dancing crowds. French krautrock ignites wild, head-banging hedonism. You're never short for choice at End of the Road, and as a world of sound bonds harmoniously across the site, Sunday's lineup proves yet another curatorial coup for the festival.

Opening the final day of Best Fit’s secret sessions at the Piano Stage is Japanese artist and composer Ichiko Aoba. Stepping out wearing a beautiful blue lino print kimono robe, tiny face pearls and feathers in her plaited hair, Aoba seems like a mystical storybook character. She immediately casts a quiet calm over the huddled audience as she places a small bunch of leaves in her stand like a lucky charm, before performing a selection of songs.

The cosy, tree-lined enclosure is a perfect setting for her music; a performance through which her angelic vocals swirl like ink through water. If those who catch her here aren’t already fans, they surely are after, and luckily have the opportunity to catch her full set at the Garden Stage later in the afternoon.

Born and raised in East London, one of this year’s Play EOTR 2024 competition winners OTG seizes the opportunity to flaunt his versatile production and vivid penmanship at the Boat Stage. Whilst his music resonates on a profound level, OTG's effort to forge connections with the audience between songs lends hugely to successfully gaining a new legion of fans.

Despite punters bouncing back from a weekend of partying with respectable vitality, after the darkened skies unleash a downpour, the afternoon mood is feeling a touch dispirited. But if there’s one act we can trust to reinvigorate us all, it’s the Florence Adooni Band. Taking to the Garden Stage - the men suited and booted in 70s-reminiscent get-up and the leading ladies sparkling in purple sequin dresses - Florence Adooni’s groove-laden Ghanaian High Life provides a well-needed dose of vibrant energy to the dampened day, her hooky melodies and rhythmic tunes proving impossible not to dance to. A significant force in African contemporary music, she interacts with the crowd with a cheeky sense of humour and a truly appreciative air, her band members jamming out solos in turn that warrant endless rounds of applause.

Back over at the Piano Stage, Canadian rising star Julianna Riolino further makes her mark on the festival with her cosmic-tinged alt-country, before festival headliners Yo La Tengo bring proceedings to a close. A beloved band for so many, a buzz is certainly in the air amongst the packed-out audience, who grab at the chance to see the trio in such a rare, stripped-back environment with both wristband-adorned hands. Yo La Tengo played a handful of songs at a lullaby-like level, including the fan-requested "Autumn Sweater" and a cover, aptly, of "The End of the Road" by folk icon Michael Hurley.

Unfortunately, there are a fair few last-minute drop outs over the weekend, including internationally-hyped Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moctar, Atlanta-hailing alt-rock outfit Upchuck, L.A. hardcore band Militarie Gun and, most notably, Sunday’s Woods Stage headliners Fever Ray. It’s a letdown across the board, particularly for those excited to witness Fever Ray’s shape-shifting and boundary-pushing electro-pop (though Karin Dreijer’s wholesome video statement posted to socials about recovering from pneumonia in hospital is, of course, unarguable).

Thankfully, End of the Road is able to work some characteristic magic and pull in Floating Points as a Garden Stage Sunday headliner, upgrading Yo La Tengo to the Woods Stage.

Bringing the songs from his forthcoming album, Cascade, to the heart of the festival, Floating Points works his experimental, live-programmed analog synths seamlessly into a perfect stage-closing set designed for the dance floor.

Indie icons Yo La Tengo's concluding set at The Woods stage offers hits from across their 25-years-spanning discography, undertaking headline responsibility with effortless ease (with additional help at one point from a young kid on guitar).

2024's weekend is another case-in-point of how versatile End of the Road is as a festival - it’s a real feat to programme stages that so capably home whimsical singer-songwriters and floaty folk as much as they do raucous hardcore and beat-heavy electronic sets.

Another summer festival season has come to its conclusion, and what a journey it's been. After another prolific weekend at Larmer Tree Gardens, we can't think of anywhere better for it to close than at the ever-trusty End of the Road.