Rooted in Rebellion: 2000 Trees Festival Returns with Grit and Glory
Tucked into the lush Cotswold Hills, 2000 Trees Festival has become a treasured midsummer tradition for fans of rock, punk, and all things alternative. Set on the idyllic Upcote Farm near Cheltenham, the fiercely independent festival marked its 18th edition this July—still proudly DIY, still punching above its weight.
What began in 2007 as a grassroots response to the overblown excess of corporate festivals has evolved into a pilgrimage for over 15,000 fans. Yet Trees has never lost its soul. It’s still the kind of place where you’ll find breakout bands rubbing shoulders with scene legends, and where community feels just as important as the lineup.
A Legacy of Loud
Over nearly two decades, Trees has hosted a who’s who of the alt world—Enter Shikari, Frank Turner, Refused, IDLES, and Jimmy Eat World among them. But the festival’s true power lies in its ability to spotlight the next wave. With lineups that span post-hardcore, punk, emo, metalcore, and indie, Trees has served as a springboard for numerous UK bands to find their sound and their following.
This year’s lineup is no exception. A genre-blurring mix of returning heroes and fresh-faced disruptors, all fired up and ready to turn tranquil fields into scenes of joyous chaos!
With unrelenting 30-degree heat blazing down for the three main days, it was a scorcher in every sense – testing, intense, and tough as old boots. But as always, an absolute blast to be part of.
Dive into Eloise’s reviews of her standout sets below, explore the massive photo gallery, and who knows – you might spot yourself in the crowd!
Buds
In many senses I think an important way to kick off being at a festival is to spend it with a fun pop punk band. On the opening day of trees the band that are provided to me are Buds – a band i have, in fact, heard a little about before this moment. Watching a pop punk band to open up a festival is important to me because it sets the vibe. The sun is probably (hopefully) shining, you’re probably drinking your first pint of the weekend, pop punk soundtracks those feelings well. Buds play a fun set – bouncing up and down and giving it their all already, at this early hour – but there’s also space for the more poignant, important stuff too. Their guitarist talks about the last time Buds played 2000 Trees, how he wasn’t there because his grandad was dying (which, he gets the crowd to accidentally cheer for by wording it in such a way that means we at first do not realise he has since died) – how togetherness, connectivity is important. He also specifically given the news lately, emphasises the importance of Free Palestine in this vein too. They play Picking Wounds, their latest single – of which the guitarist’s grandad is the front cover of – to much crowd enthusiasm.
Meryl streek
Meryl Streek is one of those artists who the first time I had the pleasure of seeing baffled me a bit. Not because the songs are especially crazy – I would describe the sound as simply great spoken word/post punk songs – but because the feeling of being yelled at by an angry Irish man was a lot to take in at first. Since then though, I have warmed to his confrontational, in your face, righteous anger greatly. Therefore, when I saw that Meryl Streek was playing 2000 trees I knew I had to go see him. It might not be as hot as it was to become in the following days but nevertheless the hot weather can certainly be felt. Nevertheless, the tent is already packed. Meryl Streek’s stage presence is captivating and as he marches around the stage – commanding the crowd to scream louder and louder – it feels as though the whole tent is under his thumb. The most memorable moment is perhaps when he plays Paddy – the entire crowd chanting ‘and you’ll always be missed and you’ll always be loved.’
Kid Kapichi
This first set at this year’s 2000 Trees is one of Kid Kapichi’s last times playing with the original lineup, and they make every second count. It is a storming set complete with plenty of audience participation, playing a good chunk of their older music (the second set of the weekend supposedly dedicated to newer songs).
Two moments of note are the first where Jack introduces Party at No. 10 as a song they ‘wrote two years ago, but yet is still relevant, and latterly their support for Palestine. Despite a few moments where you can tell the older songs are a little rusty – Revolver, especially. However, this hardly matters. The energy Kid Kapichi always provides is still present here – practically leaping across the stage at certain moments, making it an unmissable set, mistakes or not.
Hot Milk
2000 Trees and Hot Milk are a lovely combination, as proved by their set last year, which was rammed. This year too, the audience is buzzing with excitement for the set, with the ambience enhanced by the addition of the forest stage setting. The first song is one of the tracks, ‘Insubordinate Ingerland,’ from the new album, which adds both intrigue and excitement to the set. There’s a new feeling to the songs from the new album —a development, a widening of the Hot Milk sound, a distinctly English feel.
These songs also have a harder, more forward-facing political anger to them. If the first album faces inwards, this one faces outwards. It is perhaps appropriate, then, that it feels as though there’s an intensity, a new power to Hot Milk during this set. It is almost as though Han, especially, is orchestrating the entire crowd to do her bidding by sheer will. At some point, she says, ‘I bet you are all thinking who is this girl shouting at me,’ but I think that is doing the band a disservice; it doesn’t feel as though anyone in that forest doesn’t know who they are. Equally, the old songs fit in extremely well with the new in the set, the crowd singing every word along to PARTY ON MY DEATHBED.
Good Health Good Wealth
Perhaps one of the more random additions, i knew nothing of Good Health Good Wealth prior to checking them out at trees but the uniqueness of this addition to 2000 Trees is part of why this festival is so great – always willing to try things new, put bands on in places that might seem unusual but end up really working, welcoming anything is a strength of theirs. The song Eating Good feels like a highlight of the set – it’s a catchy song about, as the title implies, eating well, particularly since for all the convincing being done on stage verbally and through performance, the crowd do seem slightly baffled by it, although willing to humour the duo. Good Health Good Wealth are, as their frontman Bruce Breakey says, not a band to mosh to per se – although he introduces one song towards the end of their set as their only mosh song – but rather just a band to maybe sway to, feel the energy of. The set is extremely smooth and flies by, feeling extremely refreshing, even if both Breakey and his counterpart, Simon Kuzmickas, have the swagger to fit in with any rock band.
The Hunna
The Hunna’s timing slot on the main stage is in many ways perfect for the type of music they make. The light feeling of their music reflects well with the baking heat. Ironic, though, that may seem as they open with the wordless first track off their 2022 self-titled album, being that that track is called The Storm. In many senses, too, although it is their first time at the festival, they are a perfect 2000 Trees band, shown by just how many people enthusiastically show up as they thrash through their setlist.
Obvious The Hunna classics from that 2022 album, such as Fugazi, Trash and probably still their biggest hit, Bonfire – of which the crowd sing every word of – aside, The Hunna also play their newest single, Hide and Seek, to the adoring audience. From where I’m standing – towards the back of the middle of the field – it seems to go down well. For my part, too, I feel like it’s a song that works well in the live setting.
Lake Malice
Lake Malice are a band I’ve only seen once before, but remembered them specifically for how fun they felt to me at the time – the presence of both Alice and Blake make them extremely likeable before they’ve even played a note. That shows, too, over the whole weekend, as you walk around the 2000 trees site, it is possible to see many, many Lake Malice devotees dressed in their merch – and at the barrier too, it is obvious that many of them are waiting in anticipation. Another thing that immediately stands out about Lake Malice’s live set-up is that they are the first band this weekend whose set comes complete with backup dancers. It’s sort of unusual to see that sort of commitment to staging at a festival, for a band that isn’t even the headline, however, it does add a lot to the performance.
The backup dancers all have shiny silver outfits on, moving around the stage in a way that whips their hair behind them, adding another layer of movement and filling the stage with even more energy. Despite being a full band, the songs have an electronic feeling to them that these almost metallic background figures add well to. It’s a fun set to watch, although it also has room for more serious moments – Alice prompting the audience to put their middle fingers up, after talking about how she used to love going to gigs alone but the behaviour of people around her stopped that from feeling like a safe option.
BAMBIE THUG
Bambie Thug’s set is first and foremost a choreography masterclass, a thing of – albeit at times strange – beauty. It’s not just Bambie Thug but their dancers – bare-chested, faces covered by leather masks and tentacles. The set begins with Hex So Heavy, a song I already know, but judging by the audience reaction, an immediate earworm so intense, Bambie Thug has the entire forest under their thumb. The words ‘i’m from another planet’ ring throughout the forest and they feel completely true. The sonic landscape of the set snakes through several ideas, at times more electronic, with the intention to dance, then the next darker, the audience’s limbs having no choice but to mosh. There’s a definite lightness to parts of the set – Bambie Thug joking with the audience about cleaning their set as they climb atop their dancers. There’s a definite sexy, almost leaning directly into horny, feeling on the stage but – perhaps especially poignantly given that Bambie Thug is Irish – they also call for the freedom of Palestine, of all oppressed people, of trans people, to the tune of their track Red Rum Rave. Watching a forest full of people wave flags, mosh along to this song is an incredibly powerful moment, Bambie Thug’s voice nevertheless powerfully rising, just as their hands raise alongside their dancers, to call for protest and awareness. It’s obviously a moment of powerfully channelled anger, just as they had explained before playing the song and to me it is profoundly effective.
Kneecap
Kneecap are probably the most controversial group, band or artist on this list and frankly? I left the set feeling like this dangerous, controversial image they have been pinned with is quite a mischaracterisation. The set is great fun. Firstly, because a great number, most if not all, of the festival seem to have stationed themselves under the main stage – i guess everyone is either a fan or, like me, deeply curious to make up their own mind on this group after the controversy of Glastonbury and everything else occurring in the Kneecap world lately. Despite the feeling of danger that the news will try to have you believe, Kneecap foster, the feeling is mostly of love. Palestine flags are everywhere, including on stage. Everyone dancing and singing to the music, including the sections in Irish, it feels like true unity. The very fact of the Irish language on the big stage here feels important and worth pointing out, but equally, it is not a divider. Although we may not be able to understand every word, the feeling is felt regardless. Equally, the crowd is united by a political force. Before the subject of Palestine can even be brought up on stage, the crowd are already chanting Free Palestine. This prompts Mo Chara to talk about it too, saying that he never knows when to bring things up, but that it’s important to talk about, that it resonates with them, especially as Irish artists, that they understand oppression. It’s an incredibly powerful moment. Musically, the set begins at a much slower pace, with the ‘sexier’ songs – such as Fenian Cunts or the smooth Better Way to Live, then, as Mo Chara promises the audience, things get heavier, more hectic, dancier with tracks like I’m Flush. Although the set begins, in some sense, through the serious tone of the Palestinian genocide, the tone of the set does not stay at just acknowledging that. They also spend time talking about their court cases, confronting Britain from its own courts – giving them hell, inviting the audience to his next hearing – and being able to make fun of themselves all the while acknowledging that they should not be where the focus is in the news right now. Mo Chara explains to the audience how people largely tried to stop 2000 Trees from letting them play, but that the festival stuck to its guns and said they wouldn’t take them off the lineup, describing the festival and its audience as ‘sound cunts’ to hoots from the crowd. There’s a particularly satisfying feeling to hearing an entire field of people scream the words ‘get your brits out, we’re on a mad one.’ Somehow, Kneecap manages to make it feel like we are an exclusive club of all-knowers, all whilst being all the scandal Britain seems to want to discuss at present. People might try to convince you Kneecap are dangerous or they might go the other way and try to tell you that they are not articulating their points eloquently enough, but the reality is that in the current climate the only reason Kneecap are dangerous is because they force you to confront your internal biases and guilt, making them in fact an incredibly important group to be paying attention to right now – and you probably actually find the process of listening quite entertaining too.
WITCH FEVER
Witch Fever and the energy of a Witch Fever set/show is something that never fails to blow my mind. Doom punk is the genre, and it’s also very much the feeling. The anger and strength with which Amy is able to perform the songs only adds to the beauty of it – it feels cathartic and heavy as hell all at once. Part of that experience is how striking the tones of the guitar work that Alisha does. It’s my first time hearing the newest single, The Garden, specifically live, and the performance does feel like a highlight for more than just that reason. Amy is at the centre of a band in complete movement along with the music, as if at the eye of a storm. After the track finishes, Amy explains how she could see someone in the crowd thrashing about throughout the song – The Garden being more along the lines of a ballad – and wondered if they were listening to the same song.
Witch Fever cultivates a space during their live sets that is one of closeness to the audience – Amy getting on the barrier and amongst the crowd throughout. Equally, that closeness is heightened by, once again, a feeling of political unity. Before the band even come onto the stage, your first impression is their amps with the trans and Palestinian flags draped over them. Amy is, of course, also not the first person of the weekend to bring up the Glastonbury controversy; however, she brings it up as a fuck you to Matty Healy specifically. For the idea that ‘love and happiness’ can be cultivated in an environment that is regularly fucking over vulnerable people. Trans people, oppressed people in general. Saying that she’s – they are – so sick of cis white rich dudes disregarding the importance of protest because it doesn’t affect them. It is, unfortunately, a set that gets disturbed by an emergency in the audience, but it speaks to how good the band are that this doesn’t at all interrupt the flow once they start up again, moving into old favourite Reincarnate and Congregation with the same power and intensity.
HERIOT
For Heriot, the live sound is of prime importance to how they are perceived sonically. It is perhaps no surprise then that the sound is large. Heriot describes their understanding of their own version of heavy to be more about a mood than about necessarily just being heavy sonically, although they can do that too. The depth of sounds in their music means that watching them live can feel almost like a transportation to another world, as ethereal as it is skull-crushing in its intensity. With its understanding of both shoegaze and industrial, the music understands the need for space that builds the crowd up into a fervour just as much as vox/guitarist Debbie Gough’s thunderous commands for the crowd to show her more: more movement, bigger pits. About midway through the set, Gough introduces a special guest to the stage, which adds an extra element of intrigue and excitement to the proceedings and a unique factor to this specific live performance. A particular highlight to me is the moment the band perform Soul Chasm, a favourite of mine from the recent album cycle and a first chance for me to hear it in the setting it was intended. Heriot has talked about needing to create music that better understands the bigger spaces they are playing to, but as these songs ricochet off the walls of the aptly named cave stage, you feel as if you are falling down into the pits with these songs entirely encompassing you – and you welcome it.
Vukovi
By the time Vukovi plays their set, I’m pretty sure the air, let alone the stage, might as well be that of a hot potato. It is no surprise, then, that much of Janine’s commentary during the set revolves around just that fact – how hot it is. Although beginning the set shoeless, by the end of the first song, Janine has taken to – oh, the horror! – Wearing Crocs rather than dealing with painful feet. Although perhaps the fact of wearing Crocs may be more torture than a pain-free set, as she mentions again and again her disbelief at the fact she has been forced to wear Crocs on stage, of all shoes. That, plus the sheer power of their music makes the set a highlight of the festival in many ways, even for people like myself who are experiencing the band for the first time. Many elements are pulled together that make the set as eyecatching as it is musically satisfying. Principally, the shiny silver, tasselled outfit Janine is wearing, with her hair tied up in a high ponytail, is extremely striking against Vukovi’s brand of alt rock. The set is roughly half and half new and older songs that fit in together seamlessly. Janine has a delivery that feels particularly unique – and therefore extremely engaging – specifically in a track such as the titular track from their 2025 album, MY GOD HAS GOT A GUN, power and vulnerability sitting side by side.
THE HARA
My introduction to The Hara is a sort of amusing affair, at first, principally because at this point in the day, the forest stage-or rather, the front part of the audience of the forest stage-has become a scene of young children playing in the woods. Although I am assured that this is likely the youngest audience The Hara have ever played to – a fact that does keep jarring me as I watch the band’s particular brand of rock – this fact does not seem to deter the energy of the band in the slightest. Frontman Josh Taylor is so in-your-face energetic it’s almost startling at first – it’s like he’s got a sugar rush or something, not only bouncing around the stage but also attempting to climb all the way atop the forest stage in a way that certainly made me feel a bit nervous for him. Maybe the audience of kids does fit more than I first thought, it’s as if the forest stage has become sort of a wired-up playground for The Hara to do in as they wish. Guitarist Zack Breen is equally striking, strutting around the stage and leaping into the pit during Rockstar. It’s impossible not to be swept up into it, really. The unnerving playground-esque feeling doesn’t stop as Breen adds wearing a bear mask to the building chaos. There are however moments of – i won’t say calm, but a slightly more measured approach. They play a few new songs and everyone – band included – can only delightedly clap as tiny children have their first attempts (and successes) at surfing a crowd that has now been moved into an extremely good mood.
Calva Louise
Calva Louise are an eclectic bunch – Venezuelan singer/guitarist, French bassist and their drummer from New Zealand – and it shows in how unique their music is. The songs blur the lines between English and Spanish. By the time I get to their set at 2000 Trees, the tent is already bursting. Vocalist Jess Allanic looks striking behind her keyboard, in a long white dress over the top of a red long-sleeved shirt, she looks almost faerie-like. Exclaiming that it is hotter than even Venezuela is. Calva Louise’s new album – Edge of the Abyss – was released the day prior (the 11th), and so we, the Trees audience, get the pleasure of hearing live debuts of some of those songs – Impeccable and Hate in Me in particular – in raw form. Equally, new track W.T.F is a blistering way to start the set. The band are truly DIY – explaining the importance of grassroots and thanking the audience for engaging in acts like themselves – to the very base level of customising their own instruments to their means (bassist Alizon Taho modified Allanic’s keyboard so it is capable of swinging towards her and away at her behest, which she does often enough during the set that i think the image itself is embedded into the back of my brain). It’s weird and unique, Allanic is capable of changing her voice from screaming to singing as quickly as you like, and there’s an urgency there that’s immediately charming. The highlight, though, has to be watching as the band performs Oportunista, the crowd stirred up into a frenzy, screaming every word as the band on stage thrash and Allanic winds her arms around the stage, kicking out, almost as if in fury, during the chorus of the song.
The Heart of the Forest: Why 2000 Trees Is So Much More Than Just a Festival
2000 Trees is a gem of a festival. Everyone I speak to has an intense love for it. It’s a fiercely independent event, and it shows. The care it has for its attendees, the acts and also the more intangible things like the atmosphere are deeply felt by everyone who visits. The organisers understand exactly who their audience is – every year managing to book crowd pleasers, favourites and sneaky new finds to worm their way into our hearts. It’s a festival that truly has love of music at its heart, and that should be supported and cherished. Of course, at a festival it is not only about the music, though, and this too they understand.
One of the most unique aspects of Trees has to be its rules around bringing alcohol in – that is, that you can bring your own, as much as you like, as long as you also support the festival itself, if possible. Of course, this trust the festival has in its attendants has a pay it forward sort of effect – that is, that everyone does buy beers and supports the festival, because it doesn’t feel like you’re being stolen from. The food choices are equally amazing, you can find pretty much anything – meat or veggie, sweet or savoury – that you would have a hankering for, at a decent price relative to what you’re getting (and relative to festival pricing) and be full and satisfied with the portions.
The atmosphere is possibly the most important and also the biggest reason i know why most people return back to Trees year on year. The security are all lovely, genuinely helpful and seem to enjoy themselves, the festival goers are all super friendly – everyone is in such good spirits, seemingly always up for a chat, help you put your tent up or ask if they can help if you are alone/distressed – and the fact that many of the people there are repeat visitors means that it feels more like a yearly reunion than simply just a festival.
WORDS: ELOISE LANE PHOTOS: CRIS WATKINS
2000Trees 2025 Photo Gallery
