Review: 2000 Trees Festival

What do you talk about when you review a festival? Do you talk about the headline acts, portaloos, food vendors and camping? Maybe – that’s the sort of stuff that you’ll want to know before forking out for a weekend ticket. First things first, though; let’s talk about the music.

2000 Trees was home to more than 100 bands this year, spread over three days and four stages. This made for several solid ten-hour days of live music, and I did my best to get stuck in. Press to MECO were an early favourite of mine with their combination of clever songwriting and crushing riffs. I liked them so much I went and caught their acoustic set at the Forest Sessions stage, where their impressive 3-piece vocal harmonies really shone.

Later on in the weekend I caught Creeper, who were new to me. I arrived just in time to see their keyboardist, Hannah, take lead vocals for Crickets and I was blown away. At a weekend full of big riffs one of the most genuinely powerful moments was this heartfelt, melancholy performance.

Speaking of big riffs, Fangclub had the best and biggest bass sound of the festival. I’d never heard of them, but the helpful “For fans of . . . “ notes in the festival program pushed me their way. I loved it – their songs are simple but good and well written, with just the right mix of catchiness and heaviness.

Black Peaks are a band I have seen before, a couple of times, but they put on a hell of a show. It’s one thing to impress when you’re headlining your own show, but impressing a festival crowd is a much tougher task. They rose to the occasion with a blistering set, featuring new and unreleased tracks from their forthcoming album All That Divides.

I spoke to Black Peaks before their set; check out how they nearly ended up writing 3 full albums, how the lyrics came together, and the trials of touring with Mastodon, A Perfect Circle and System Of A Down.

Other impressive bands were Marmozets, who sounded like a feral Royal Blood, Vodun, an Afro-influenced prog rock band with an amazing drummer, and Will Varley, whose impressive songcraft and excellent voice captivated on the main stage.

2000 Trees is very much a guitar rock festival. This ranged from catchy pop rock like The XCERTS to the aggressive punch of Palm Reader, but there was plenty of ground in between. There were also a few interesting outliers: ambient haziness from La Lune, a synth “chillout” set from Arcane Roots (in addition to their blinding main stage performance), and “anarchic electro psych punk noise” from Black Futures.

Aside from the music, I liked lots of other things about the festival:

Cashless. Sounds like it would be a nightmare, but it ended up being super convenient. Everyone has a contactless chip on their wristband, so no more keeping track of your wallet and paying exorbitant cash machine fees.

It felt like there was an equal gender split, which is something you don’t often see at rock gigs. This didn’t just apply to the audience; loads of bands had one or more female members, which is always good to see.

Clean loos. It’s not exactly fun to use a portaloo during a heat wave, but 2000 Trees keep their facilities clean and usable all weekend. Contrast that to the Reading festival “long drops”…  I know what I’d prefer.

Drinking water. This was free and really easy to access all over the site. I don’t think I had to queue for more than a few seconds to fill up a water bottle, which is vital for a summer festival.

Good food. I treated myself to a hot meal each day, and the vendors were great. Special mention goes to the Pad Thai Guys, who made genuinely delicious and healthy festival meals, but you could get everything from ice cream and barista coffee to bhajis and donuts.

Chillout space. There was a decent amount of space set aside for relaxing, with hay bales to sit on and shade from the sun. There was even morning yoga, although there’s something weird about stumbling out of your tent in search of coffee and finding that some people are up early for fun so they can get a cheeky bit of yoga in.

Overall, 2000 Trees does what you’d hope it would. It takes all the good bits of bigger festivals – the food, the music and the organisation, and scales it down into a friendly, community-sized package. It feels that everyone has something in common just by being there, and it’s a great experience. Here’s to 2019!