2000 Trees Festival returned to Upcote Farm, Cheltenham for another year this July.
It has previously been awarded ‘best medium festival’ two years in a row; so, I was excited to see what the hype was all about.
Alongside this, with just over 40% of the announced line-up having at least one female member, the festival has put in effort to represent the minority, so I was keen to see this in practice.
Arriving on Wednesday meant a relaxed start to a pretty manic week, as artists alternated between the Word and Forest stages.
Despite this, I spent all day at the Forest stage due to the relaxed vibes.
Exit Child kicked it off with their final gig for a while, in which they certainly left everything out on the stage. You could tell how much playing this festival meant to them as Anya stated it is like her ‘family’s Christmas’ and ‘the best time of the year’. Their set provided the crowd with grungy energy and a slightly refreshing surprise when Anya took of her t-shirt dress to reveal her naked body covered in slurs and insults.
To finish the day I watched Dead Pony, who came all the way from Glasgow and are in their fifth week of their Europe and UK tour.
Their bouncy and spirited set got the crowd clapping along and moshing, warmed up and ready for the week ahead.
Thursday was busier in terms of the foot traffic and quite a bit warmer, with everyone in good spirits.
The first band that I caught that day was The Menstrual Cramps on the Neu stage, who unbeknownst to me started the movement ‘Bands Boycott Barclays’ with which they were extremely successful, as they managed to get the company to pull out of their sponsorship in major UK festivals.
This filled their set with a powerful and natural rage to want change in this world that we are currently living in and so rather fittingly the lead singer, Emilia, wished the crowd to have a ‘safe and sexy weekend’.
The last act that I can’t go without mentioning was Crae Wolf. It was her first time playing 2000 Trees, but she certainly killed it – merging together metal with rap to make an enchanting mix, she truly captivated the crowd and converted them into her wolf pack.
Bex definitely started Friday off right on the main stage, with a punk-rock style energy and a strong singing voice, complemented by bubbles. During her set she played a new song ‘Taste Better’ and she stated that the crowd ‘came ready to play’ as they started moshing before midday.
Crawlers were the next band that I was hoping to catch on the main stage this day. However, it was not looking very hopeful when the time came round for them to start. They finally came out on stage after the crowd waiting a little over half an hour and Holly, the lead singer, stated ‘2000 Trees, we are Crawlers, and we nearly died to get here today’, to which she added ‘on the way here our wheel flew off on the M6!’.
Seemingly, they did not let this phase them, as despite their near-death experience, they still provided us with a passionate albeit brief set into which they managed to squeeze four of their songs.
The final day of Trees started off for me with HAWXX on the Cave stage, whose set contained rage-induced bellowing and mystical tribe like harmonies. Mid-way through their set, Anna said that they would be ‘taking a bit of a risk’ with a new song that suggested to ‘Be That Whore’ ‘in a society that is sucking out souls dry’.
They received a great response from that crowd despite some technical difficulties, completed with a drum solo from Jess, and went on to immerse them in a chant shouting ‘hey!’ and pumping their fists in the air.
After this I went over to the Forest stage for Safesp8ce. She started off by saying ‘I wanna hear you during my set guys, even if you don’t even know my songs, we’re vibing’, which was very much true. Before finishing her set, she spoke about some current issues in the world and mentioned that the ’line up is amazing, but we need more POC (people of colour) in alt rock’; despite this, it was lovely to see her starting to pave the way for others to be discovered.
The last artist I managed to watch for the week was Harpy, who regardless of being an independent artist, was there playing her first festival. She went on to say that she will ‘never forget’ playing the festival before politely demanding that the crowd opens the ‘motherfucker’ (pit) for her.
2000 Trees was a terrific festival as it allowed me to discover smaller artists that I would never have heard of otherwise, and I am already thinking about returning next year.
Written By Finn Delisle
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