If you only take one thing away from this article let this be it – 2000 Trees Festival is incredible.
Having been to all but one since 2010, coming back to the festival feels like returning home despite some minor alterations to the layout and stages most years.
2000 Trees Festival is a small, independent festival situated in a field in Gloucestershire. It’s focus is on rock, indie and alternative bands spread out across five different stages, including one, an addition that came a few years ago, in an actual forest.
The Forest stage is a magical space to catch a stripped back set, with some of the most attentive crowds at any festival, ever.
On top of this there are several camps, and now busking spots, that are dedicated to some of the acts that mean the most to the patrons of the festival. It all started with Camp Reuben but has since expanded to include Camp Marwood, Camp Turner and, new for this year, Camp Frabbits.
Over the course of the three days (Thursday to Saturday) you get to see a ton of bands, a lot of which are returning from previous years, and they’re usually performing in different iterations and locations, ranging from be full-electric on the Main Stage, stripped back in the forest, in a camp site, at a busking site or just walking round enjoying other sets.
You’ll also see a lot of the same faces in the crowd, year on year, and that’s what make this festival so special – it feels like a community. It’s got the same spirit as the good bits of Glastonbury on a much smaller scale. With a heavy emphasis on new and upcoming artists you can be sure that the majority of those going are real music fans who are there to discover their next favourite artist.
Over the years I’ve fallen in love with Frightened Rabbit, Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip, The Xcerts, Black Honey, Idles, Wolf Alice and more just from checking them out because they were playing at the festival.
On top of this I’ve seen a bucket load of bands I already love there, including Frank Turner, Bombay Bicycle Club, Johnny Flynn, Los Campesinos, The Twilight Sad – I could go on forever!
However, I shan’t and instead let’s focus on another wonderful year – 2000 Trees 2018, the 12th year.
This year saw two of the festival’s biggest headliners, At The Drive-In and Enter Shikari grace the main stage alongside a plethora of fan favourites and up-and-coming artists dotted around the festival. In fact, honestly there were too many great bands that I saw for me to go through for each and every one them.
It’s 2018 so this shouldn’t really need focusing on and should just be the norm but it was good to see a lot more women on the line-up this year with several of my highlights of the festival coming from female fronted bands such as Dream Wife, Sløtface and Sœur who all performed blinding sets.
One of the best independent record labels around in the UK is Xtra Mile and they have a deep history with the festival so it’s always great to see some of those acts on the line-up – it always feels like Trees when I’m catching a set from Ben Marwood (main stage, main stage – it finally happened!), The Xcerts and Beans on Toast who have been festival staples for years and, more recent additions, Skinny Lister and Will Varley. It’s rewarding to see all their crowds growing year on year and it’s refreshing to see that a festival like Trees recognise these are the kind of artists that deserve to be on those stages, the way these bands build themselves up from relentless touring fits into the ethos of the festival – Skinny Lister’s set in the cave this year was an absolute party! On top of this there were also brilliant sets from new Xtra Mile acts Saint Leonard’s Horses and P D Liddle.
The biggest draw for the festival this year was Saturday nights headliner – Enter Shikari, who had probably the largest crowd the festival has ever seen and they truly delivered. Their set was a spectacle, both visually and audibly – the stage housed huge light installations and they had brought their 360 sound experience to the festival to create a unique and immersive set.
Twin Atlantic also returned to headline again and, whilst the set contained no new material since their last headline slot in 2016, they delivered a solid performance as they cherry picked the best tracks from their last three albums. However, it’s still a shame to see Vivarium so neglected!
The forest stage saw several special performances including stripped back ones from The Xcerts & Enter Shikari, and, a personal highlight- Crazy Arm who brought their folk-punk sound and high energy to get the crowd off their feet and dancing late Thursday Evening. The band also included a wonderful cover of Frightened Rabbit’s “I Wish I Was Sober” which was just one of many, many Frightened Rabbit covers over the weekend with a touching tribute to the late Scott Hutchison in the forest hosted by BBC Introducing on the Friday and several at the aforementioned Camp Frabbits busking spot and in another example of what a wonderful, different festival 2000 Trees is, my weekend ended sat down in the forest drunkenly singing along to Frightened Rabbit covers.
It’s worth noting that the headphone discos are always a blast, with two sites giving different experiences – the main stage for the more mainstream, typical headphone disco songs and simultaneously one in the Cave with more emo, pop-punk and rock songs (it’s a nostalgia fest!). This year also saw a Karaoke running in the NEU stage by beer sponsors Noisey and their Old Blue Last Beer.
The food always manages to remain more independent than the majority of festivals with lots of vegan and vegetarian option – and it’s all so tasty!
So, in summary – see you all there next year, it’s not to be missed!
