ONCE again the End of the Road Festival was a joy for all lovers of alternative music.

It’s a wonderfully diverse affair with a huge range of music and there are plenty of magic moments just waiting to happen.

This year’s musical menu included the spectacular Flaming Lips, New York Indie stalwarts Yo La Tengo, the innovative St Vincent, Kendal’s Wild Beasts riding the crest of their very own wave and the hugely popular balladeer of life John Grant.

Drawn towards the Garden stage by the sound of a swirling cello and Kate Bush-like trilling I was greeted by the visually-arresting Arc Iris whose quirky anthems got me off to a decent start. This was swiftly followed by the strident surf punk of Atlanta’s Black Lips, the mesmerising vocal gymnastics of soulful Benjamin Clementine and cranked up garage rock of Ezra Furman who ended up running through the audience and winning a lot of new fans. Ezra finished his set with a version of Beck’s Devil’s Haircut, the first of many great covers heard over the weekend.

Evening brought a stellar set from the striking St Vincent who looked and sounded remarkable and the Gene Clarke - No Other Band with musicians from Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear and Beach House plus Fairport original Ian Matthews, recreating the founder Byrd’s 1974 masterpiece (No Other) with great panache. The final encore was a perfect Eight Miles High.

Saturday started for me with the beguiling Canadian Barr Brothers whose quiet songs and ambient musings sent me drifting away. Didn’t last long though, the grungey mayhem of Arrows of Love made sure of that. Then there was sweet soul music from St Paul and the Broken Bones, a seven piece from Birmingham, Alabama, whose vocalist Paul Janeway sounded uncannily like Otis Redding at times.

I stumbled on Sean Lennon doing psychedelic stuff with The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, then Sam Lee reinventing British folk music, Perfumed Genius sounding a little lost in the world and The Horrors looking really rock’n’roll.

The evening belonged to the Flaming Lips with their incredible show built on multi-layered anthemic psychedelia and stunning visuals. Huge inflatable creatures populated the stage, smoke and streamers filled the air, main man Wayne Coyne ended up surfing the crowd in a large bubble and the light show was just amazing. Finishing with a very faithful rendition of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds it was truly a memorable show.

On Sunday the bard of Salford John Cooper Clarke held sway in the Big Top with his cutting, clever wit. The Radiophonic Workshop provided futuristic nostalgia while Yo La Tengo treated us to a freewheeling afternoon of random questions and equally random songs, and in the evening played a brilliant show on The Woods stage mixing tracks from their excellent Fade album with many treats from their huge back catalogue. Quiet and beautiful, ramped up and exhilarating, they ticked all the boxes and after recovering from the white noise freakout that was once known as the Beach Boy’s Little Honda they wound it down again and left the audience roaring for more.

A quick rush over to the Big Top for party time with the Felice Brothers and a big barrel load of rootsie Americana rounded things off nicely.