This week’s post is a bit dif­fer­ent, but there’s some­thing excit­ing hap­pen­ing next week­end in my neigh­bour­hood so I’d like to give it a heads up. It’s a mini music fes­ti­val called The End, and its hap­pen­ing in Crouch End, north London.

The End takes place Fri­day 16th and Sat­ur­day 17th Novem­ber, start­ing at 7pm each evening. Once you’ve bought your tick­et and are in pos­ses­sion of your wrist­band and pro­gramme, you’re free to wan­der around Crouch End vil­lage, drop­ping in to lis­ten to any of the per­form­ers that grab your inter­est (bear in mind some of the venues are pret­ty tiny, so it may be wise to get in ear­ly). There’s an impres­sive­ly size­able line-up and acts range from folk and indie to dance music, some bands are local; oth­ers come from as far as Hol­land, Chile and Japan.

The quirky venues – which are all no more than a ten minute stroll from each oth­er – include award-win­ning cafe The Hab­er­dash­ery, cute vin­tage clothes store Paint­ed Black, and Rileys ice-cream par­lour. Plus there’s down­stairs at the King’s Head, known for its com­e­dy nights, set to rock till 1am and the Music Palace where rev­ellers can par­ty till 2am – check out the half dozen or so DJs appear­ing. Even Bud­gens super­mar­ket is fea­tur­ing free acoustic sets from 9pm, mak­ing a spot of late-night gro­cery shop­ping sound much more pleasant.

Founder of The End ‘mul­ti-venue extrav­a­gan­za’ is Howard Monk, musi­cian and fes­ti­val and gig pro­mot­er of many years stand­ing, but this event is close to his heart, tak­ing place in his adopt­ed Lon­don home of Crouch End.