What to see at End of the Road Festival this year according to the music industry

Tshepo Mokoena, Editor at Noisey:

“Nilüfer Yanya’s voice knocks you back first. Before you even get to her lilting melodies and deft storytelling, the west Londoner guitarist and songwriter thrusts herself forward, vocals thick and textured as a knotted rope. She first broke through in 2016, aged 21, with single “Small Crimes” and has gone on to put out a smattering of tracks since. All swell with emotive guitar lines in a style that falls somewhere between indie and lo-fi pop – trying to slot her neatly into one genre category proves to be a bit of a nightmare. With a BBC Sound of 2018 longlisting behind her and a tour on the way all summer, she'll be one young UK artist worth catching at End of the Road this year. That way, you can let her voice work its magic in person.”

Nilüfer Yanya plays The Big Top at End of the Road on Friday 31 August at 2.30pm

Greg Cochrane - Associate Editor at Loud And Quiet:

“Back in spring Richmond, Virginia musician Lucy Dacus released her second album Historian. It didn't simply represent the follow-up to the 22-year-old's very fine debut No Burden, but something more symbolic. 2017 sucked for Dacus - a set of relationship, health and financial challenges all tumbled into each other like an unforgiving row of dominoes, all set to the backdrop of Trump's farcical first year in office.

Those aches, pains and ghosts were all channelled into a dramatic set of songs that formed a narrative rainbow that stretched from despair to promise. While those experiences left her in a new state of mind ("not really in the best way"), this year she's spent trying to look to the future while getting out on the road to perform those songs. It's all good, but the more hushed moments will be particularly arresting. After that we'll be tripping to the Loud And Quiet stage at Big Top to catch Tirzah, and later, the mighty Protomartyr. Come with. “

Lucy Dacus play The Woods Stage at End of the Road on Friday 31 August at 3.45pm

Jordan Bassett, senior writer at NME:

“When people write about garage rock hero Billy Childish, they usually talk about his incredibly prolific approach to creativity – the man’s recorded around 150 albums – but what’s really inspiring is that he still seems to be having as much fun as he did when he formed his first band, the Pop Rivets, way back in 1977. The Chatham, Kent punk has since been in a bewildering number of bands – The Milkshakes, Thee Headcoats, The Vermin Poets and The Spartan Dreggs, to name just a handful – and each has been imbued with same joyous, freewheeling, spit-and-sawdust ethos. These are records where the mistakes are half the fun.

Billy performs pretty rarely and doesn’t court attention (despite having fans in Kylie Minogue, Beck and Jack White), so this End of the Road show is a rare – and unexpected – treat. Praise be that he’s back with CMTF, a band that features his wife Nurse Julie (great name) on bass and with whom, typically, he's released five albums in as many years. It’s been suggested that he’s been making the same album for 40 years. Well, that’s probably true – but it’s a bloody good album. And then there’s my other favourite thing about Billy Childish: he once released a song called ‘(We Hate The Fuckin’) NME’.”

Billy Childish plays The Big Top at End of the Road on Saturday 1 September at5pm

Verity Sharp, Presenter on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction:

“Anyone who describes their music as being inspired by Slavic folklore, mysticism, poetry and black metal has my attention. This is the brief of Kuba Ziołek, a multifaceted musician and composer from the Polish underground whose solo set a couple of years ago seduced the masterful Wacław Zimpel. The two are appearing at this year’s EOTR as a duo on the Late Junction stage. Ziołek will bring the folk sensibility, the guitar, the abstract, dreamy lyrics, Ziolek his mastery of the clarinet and long held interest in American minimalism.

Also on the bill is poet and activist Camae Ayewa aka Moor Mother who’s been stunning audiences globally with her visceral lyrics styled from a life lived in some of the most close knit, yet economically bereft, communities in Philadelphia. She rails against social inequality, racial injustice, police brutality and sexual discrimination. ‘For me’ she says, ‘it’s all about putting sound out in the world to change something as an act of protection. Not as a performance in front of somebody’. As ever, BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction stage comes highly recommended to anyone who welcomes a break from the comfort zone.

Laura Barton, BBC Radio 4, The Guardian, The Observer and The FT:

"There is so much incredible music at EOTR this year (yes, I concede, there is every year, but still each September I get excited all over again). Away from the shiny big names, I’ve been wanting to see Caroline Spence live for ages — she’s a country-folk songwriter from Nashville with a sumptuous voice and a mean turn of phrase, and her Spades and Roses album was one of my slow-burn favourites of last year. I think Tamara Lindeman of the The Weather Station is one of the most interesting and adventurous and affecting songwriters around and I can’t wait to hear her voice in this setting.

The artist I’m most looking forward to seeing is maybe Kiran Leonard (pictured above)— it’s been a little while since I last saw him live, and I feel that between each live show and each album he takes these ludicrously huge strides forward. He has a new album out this October that I expect to be properly tremendous. And if you’ve never caught one his live shows prepare yourself for something stunning and visceral. Also if you don’t see Richard Dawson you are a mad person."

Kiran Leonard plays The Tipi Tent on the opening night of End of the Road at 10.45pm