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”.