After some worrying weather in the build-up to the event, the sun shone on Upcote Farm as 2000trees 2024 got underway.
Wednesday 10 July
Exit Child – Photo credit: Snaprockandpop (Jay Singh)After our annual rounds of hugs and catch-ups with friends and Trees regulars, we kicked off the festival with Exit Child‘s final (well, penultimate – they played as a last-minute replacement the following day) ever show. Taking place in the Forest, Anya opened up about her mental health struggles amidst the frenzied and energetic math pop, explaining how important it is to look after yourself and others. A band that will be missed for sure but they’re doing the right thing in prioritising their well-being. A quick hop over to the Word Stage to catch Kite Thief, a heavy yet melodic band with a huge crowd that lapped up every riff. After this, we went back into the Forest to catch Pet Needs. With a focus on ‘setting the context for the rest of the weekend’, the Colchester punk rockers were clearly delighted to be playing so early on so they could enjoy the festival in full and still on a high from the recent top 20 (no. 17) success of their album ‘Intermittent Fast Living’ – which inspired some fine singalongs.
Alcopop! Records signings CARSICK were up next and with England shirts, a maraudering frontman, astute observations on the state of the modern world and a sound that falls between Blur and Soft Play, it was a sheer delight. Lambrini Girls are a hugely important band and their Forest set was full of short, sharp and shouty punk songs that remind you to call people out on toxic behaviour, tell TERFS to fuck off and not forget about the most important issues around today, finishing the set with a call-and-response to-and-forth with the audience to free Palestine.
Enola Gay‘s intense and heavy sound is reminiscent of La Dispute and completely filled the tent before The Xcerts treated the early birds to a run through of seminal album ‘There Is Only You’ in full to celebrate its 10th anniversary. An important record for the band (and us, personally), it was a delight to hear some of these songs live again for the first time in years and although the band admitted some of the performance may have been a little rusty, the heart of these songs – and love this festival has for this band – meant it really didn’t matter. That title track closer is just so perfectly pitched.
Wednesday ended in what is now rather bittersweet fashion as we watched England on the big screen in the Axiom. It wasn’t to be but for a special moment when Ollie Watkins fired the Three Lions to the final, everybody in that tent believed it would be our year…
Thursday 11 July
Is 10.30am too early to rock? Clearly not when Blank Atlas are around. This Bristol alt-rock trio have played shows with Jamie Lenman and Holding Absence, claiming their sound appeals to fans of everyone from Meshuggah to McFly – and they’re not wrong. The Menstrual Cramps are punk activists who urge everyone to step away from ‘boy politics’ and ‘cull the Tories’ (the sentiment is still relevant, perhaps even more so now if they lurch even further into divisive dog-whistling) while Cherym delivered a high-octane set of Ash-style power pop. London queercore act Shooting Daggers were intense, angry and a revelation – fighting the good fight for all minorities.
So many people were excited about Meryl Streek and the crowd built up early for his set in the Neu Stage. A modern punk poet with an industrial, beats-heavy soundtrack he tackles the issues that are affecting his home county and beyond – from greedy landlords to incompetent governments – but with an emotional punch. This is especially the case on ‘Paddy’, a tribute to his late uncle which contains the lines ‘You will always be remembered, you will always be missed, you will always be loved’. These were delivered while walking through the crowd and acted as a reminder to never let go of your positive memories. Featuring members of Toska, Black Peaks and Palm Reader, Vower played their third ever gig in The Cave – and they’re just as loud and brutal as you’d want, but with occasional forays into a more post-rock sound.
We were very excited to see Awakebutstillinbed for the first time and, yet again, were not disappointed. Noodly, mathy and shouty experimental art pop with a ‘takeover’ by UK tour partners Your Arms Are My Cocoon halfway through, it was the kind of set that left everyone beaming. Spanish Love Songs were a must-see for so many people and their set saw people spill out of the Axiom tent. We couldn’t get anywhere near it but the band – and crowd – sounded in fine form. Californian post-hardcore math-rockers Movements were on electric form in the Cave with new song ‘Afraid to Die’ opening the set and sounding HUGE, while Shelf Lives appear to be on a most welcome mission to bring back Electroclash.
It was then time for a phenomenal run of acts to close the opening full day – Manchester Orchestra, Los Campesinos and The Gaslight Anthem. Manchester Orchestra dipped into their extensive back catalog with the opening ‘Pride’ and ‘Cope’ in particular sounding colossal while Brian Fallon added guest vocals to a stunning rendition of ‘The Gold’. The whole crowd was seemingly in awe of the band’s mighty, beefed-up live sound and Andy Hull’s vocals – even right at the back as we made our way to the Forest for a prime spot for Los Campesinos!
Celebrating the upcoming release of new album ‘Every Hell’, Gareth Paisey announced ‘We haven’t come here to fuck around’ and the band raced through songs from every era, barely stopping for breath and enjoying adulation from a packed crowd. The new songs sounded perfect and were welcomed like old friends while ‘Hello Sadness’, ‘Romance is Boring’ and ‘Knee Deep at ATP’ all boasted huge singalongs. It was up to The Gaslight Anthem to finish the day off and they did this with aplomb – bringing out all the hits in a relentlessly infectious and upbeat 90 minutes. There was room for a Mother Love Bone (pre Pearl Jam) cover and Andy Hull returned the favour by duetting on ’45’ before ‘The ’59 Sound’ closed the set in typically joyous fashion.
2000trees Festival 2025 tickets are already on sale. The festival takes place from Wednesday 9 to Saturday 12 July 2025 at Upcote Farm, Gloucestershire. More information and tickets are available at 2000trees.co.uk.
