2000 Trees Festival – Upcote Farm, Cheltenham, 15/16 July 2011

As spoilt for choice with festivals as we are in the UK, a great number of them tend to focus on the line-up above all else, leaving the aesthetics and atmosphere to fall by the wayside, or vice versa. 2000 Trees, however, is one of only a handful of festivals to realise the importance of and pay attention to both. There are few moments as full of excitement and curiosity as the first time you walk into a festival, knowing how familiar and personal the strange sights you can see will soon be as they become your home for the next few days. Visually, this was particularly true of 2000 Trees, as the wonderfully homemade yet instantly trustworthy landscape of rolling hills covered with tents and scattered with poppies came into view.

Layout-wise, the site is one of the most welcoming I’ve ever been to for a number of reasons. The campsite, for example, is integrated into the festival, which means none of those long walks in and out of crowded gates or waiting in never-ending queues to have your wristband checked for the hundredth time just to see a band. Obviously this would be somewhat chaotic at one of the festival giants such as Reading, but in a manner that actually speaks for all those in attendance, the sense of trust between all five thousand attendees meant that the entire festival flowed with ease. Sonically, however, the first music I was greeted by at the festival was the disgustingly sludgy doom-metal sound of Witchsorrow, which was oozing out of The Cave, the stage opposite the festival entrance which hosted the more alternative bands of the weekend. Deciding not to stick around for this odd opener, we pitched our tent, got into the festival spirit and consulted the programme.

Properly kicking off the festival for me were Vessels, and what an opener they were. The astoundingly raw yet melodic post-rock group played in The Cave, and delivered an utterly jaw-dropping set, constantly thanking the crowd for their enthusiasm and doubling their own in response. Changing the vibe slightly, I followed Vessels up by heading over the the Main Stage to see Tribes, who employed a very Arctic Monkeys-esque stage presence and an absolutely huge, modern indie sound. I couldn’t help feeling that we won’t have the pleasure of seeing this group on such an accessible stage for much longer, as they are surely destined for the big festivals.

Next was one of the biggest highlights of the weekend - Dave McPherson, a London-based, delightfully heartfelt and grassroots singer-songwriter, performing in the Leaf Lounge. Drawing a large and clearly devoted audience in the small tent, Dave utilised a powerful voice with a masterfully controlled falsetto laced into it. After a thoroughly entertaining set, a unanimous crowd requested ‘Faster the Chase’, which he played with a heart-wrenching dedication to a friend of his who recently passed away, and followed it with a brilliantly executed cover of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’. After Dave’s set and a short break, I headed over to the Main Stage to see a band who’s appeal I was personally unsure about – Glasgow’s Twin Atlantic. However, whilst on record I tend to find them a little too calculated, and have always found Sam McTrusty’s voice to grate on me a little, seeing them live was an entirely different, mind-blowing experience. Standing in the absolutely pissing rain and glorying in the shared euphoria of the crowd, I found myself thoroughly enjoying one of the most stand-out sets I would see all weekend, with songs such as ‘You’re Turning Into John Wayne’ echoing the nostalgic feeling of seeing Biffy Clyro in their pre-14th Floor days. “You guys are just trying to make us feel at home“, Sam joked, as rain began to beat down even harder and the crowd’s enthusiasm grew with it.

It was during this set that I realised that, as old-fashioned as this may sound, there is really something to be said for festivals without the mega-screens on either side of the stage. The band’s audience, unable to comfortably see them from a distance, put more effort into their participation and whole-heartedly watch, listen and dance. The band’s performance and overall presence on the stage is more intense as a result, and this was true throughout the entire weekend.

Hoping to get a good spot for experimental loop-based band Tall Ships, I left Twin Atlantic’s set a little early and headed over to the Leaf Lounge to see one of the worst mistakes of the weekend – the decision to put the band on a stage without the capacity for even half the band’s audience. The crowd were crushed in, and stretched all the way to the back and well out of the tent. From the position I got I could barely hear them properly, let alone actually see them. I gave up fairly quickly and, after bumping into half of And So I Watch You From Afar, headed over to the main stage to see a snippet of The King Blues‘ set which, other than the stellar rapport built with the audience, I didn’t find massively impressive on any other level.

As night fell and the festival lit up, anticipation rose for the two major headliners, Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip on the Main Stage and And So I Watch You From Afar in The Cave. The latter was the obvious choice for many and settling in amongst a crowd that could barely contain its excitement, the atmosphere was almost palpable. It became apparent that for a huge portion of the festival-goers this was the main event. The band arrived on stage not a second late, and with little more than a hearty shout tore into ‘BEAUTIFULUNIVERSEMASTERCHAMPION’, quickly bonding with an audience that surged forward with giddy adoration. The most memorable moments of the utterly encapsulating set were the viciously executed ‘Search:Party:Animal’, Tony Wright scaling the speakers to conduct a loud chant during ‘Don’t Waste Time Doing Things You Hate’, a man in a bright green crocodile costume shinning up the pole supporting the tent and crashing to the ground expecting to be caught, and both guitarists hurling themselves onto the crowd and continuing to play, silhouetted against the dizzying lights.

Utterly exhausted by the previous night, I rose in the early hours of Saturday morning to sadly find my tent door open and my bag containing my SLR, passport, house keys, interview notes and pretty much the rest of my life missing from right next to my head. Chasing frantically around the campsite I discerned that we had unwittingly camped next to an optimum spot for people breaking in, and a great many of the tents surrounding us had suffered the same fate. Sitting rather dejectedly by the main stage sipping what was at least a very nice filter coffee, I was unexpectedly and irrevocably cheered up by a memorable set from the massively endearing Ellen and the Escapades, who kicked off the Saturday morning with their intensely cutesy and wonderfully appropriate country-influenced, yet very English, folk. Looking around the sleepy, soggy audience, there were few faces not smiling and few feet not tapping.

From then, we had a long break and enjoyed looking around the festival a little more, splashed out on one of the ever-popular Pieminister Pies and sampled the local cider before heading off to The Cave for a truly ferocious set from Herefordian instrumental six-piece Talons. Clearly overjoyed at the massive turnout, the band played one of the most unforgettable sets of the weekend. Sadly, the sound in the tent was somewhat muddy and there were several moments where it was impossible to distinguish the guitars or violins from each other, or discern what they were actually doing. However, the band displayed real camaraderie, and hammered out a fantastic set with as much enthusiasm as any of the major bands on the bill. Lying on the grass outside The Cave after this, I heard a good chunk of Hawk Eyes‘ viciously aggressive set. Previously known as Chickenhawk, this hardcore quintet squeezed possibly the most impressive sound out of the little stage yet. Immediately afterwards, strolling casually in the direction of the Main Stage, I was enticed into the Leaf Lounge by the ethereal sound of violin-led group Yndi Halda, who mesmerised the audience with a soaring set of glorious, ambient post-rock. Inducing a live atmosphere very similar to that of Explosions in the Sky, this unexpected experience proved to be another highlight of the festival.

Over by the Main Stage once again I was lucky enough to see an outstandingly energetic set from Imperial Leisure,who pulled in one of the biggest and most excited crowds I’d seen at 2000 Trees yet. Putting on a very theatrical show and connecting brilliantly with their audience, the band were consistently upbeat and refreshingly cheerful. ‘I’m In Love With The Landlord’s Daughter’ provided one of the best sing-alongs of the whole festival, and they left a very satisfied-looking crowd behind them when they eventually came to the end of their sweaty set. After this, there was a nice change of pace in the Leaf Lounge, where we saw Left With Pictures, a band we’d picked out of the programme due to their description as being ‘armed with melodicas, guitars, violins, kazoos and twinkling pianos’. The group did not disappoint, and delivered a heart-warming collection of folksy, upbeat numbers.

It was now back over to the Main Stage, and if I’d thought the audience was big or excited for the Imperial Leisure, it was nothing in comparison to the shuddering elation of the suddenly close-knit and murmuring crowd gathering for Three Trapped Tigers. One of the UK’s most notable instrumental bands, and boasting a live sound that was absolutely second to none, the experimental noise-rock trio burst into life with ‘Cramm’, the opener off their album, Route One Or Die. Not for the first time that weekend I was in the comfort of a crowd of fans that respected those around them, and, thoroughly enjoying the encapsulating combination of the rain and the sound, stayed to hear the entirety of the set. I stuck around after this to see a favourite of mine, Scottish indie-rockers The Twilight Sad, known for their creation of a veritable wall of sound on and off the record. Always rather a gamble live, the band sadly gave rather a lacklustre performance, with literally only vocalist James Graham making any kind of effort with the audience. ‘I Became A Prostitute’ and ‘That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy’, however, were still a fantastic live experience and suited the festival down to the ground.

Frightened Rabbit‘s headline set on the Main Stage as darkness fell was everything anyone could have wanted it to be. The set comprised songs spanning their three-album career, with Scott Hutchinson practically tripping over himself to thank the crowd for their enthusiasm at this, his first time headlining a festival. Live, the band were an unexpectedly intriguing experience, as several of the numbers, such as ‘Head Rolls Off’, were performed more softly and slowly than the album versions. Whilst the band and the atmosphere were generally as perfect as one could have hoped for, the let-down of the evening was a huge collection of teenagers and men in their late twenties who spent the entirety of the set moshing as hard and as constantly as they could. This happened throughout the set, and only when the rest of the crowd became genuinely threatening towards the end did they eventually pack it in. As the lights twinkled in the dark, Frightened Rabbit closed the festival with a beautiful rendition of ‘Keep Yourself Warm’, during which the crowd hugged each other and sang along fervently. After this glorious ending the crowd roared one last time, the band heartily said their farewells and left the stage, and the lights were dimmed.

Walking away from the Main Stage for the last time, I reflected on the diversity of the line-up for a festival of this size. At very few events will you have the opportunity to see a savage hardcore band on one stage, spell-binding post-rock on another, ska bands dotted around here and there and the promise of Scotland’s finest modern folk band to close it all. The difference in attitude and general feel of the festival is that, as a result of the carefully chosen line-up, the five thousand people in attendance are all there not because they’re after a raucous piss-up but because they truly love music. In an age where everybody is under the impression that a good festival costs a despicable £180, 2000 Trees is a festival that feels incomparably personal at merely a fraction of the cost of the festival giants, and it is this among many reasons, that make it arguably one of the best small festivals in the country.