Review and photos by Tom Ellis / @tjephotos_

Thursday

Deep in the Cotswold countryside, a little quaint farm, once a year, transforms into a grassroots celebration exploding with heavy riffs and a DIY attitude – celebrating the best of the scene, 2000 Trees is back again, this time, for a record breaking year.

As campers flocked to the festival for the Wednesday, people were eager to get into the live atmosphere. However, it’s the first day? The arena is closed! 

Well luckily in the campsites sits the forest stage, nestled within some of the trees the festival gets its name, the music started as the festival gates opened for campers

Kicking off our day we caught Hastings punk powerhouses Kid Kapchi, their 1st of two sets across the weekend. These will be the last shows they ever play with the original 4 member line up as Ben Beetham (Guitar)  and George Macdonald (Drums) announced leaving the band earlier this year to “move on to new endeavours”, making this a special one. 

Kid Kapichi played their hearts out, making the most of one of their last times as 4 piece, the setlist reminisced through older hits and fan favourites before all coming to an end with their classic set closer ‘smash the gaff’. A fitting start for our 2000 trees

Then followed Manchester favourites Hot Milk and despite sound mixing issues and technical difficulties they did not fail to wow as they showed the audience they earned their headline slot. 

To close out the night of live sets was still one more band, scene legends The Xcerts, however this wasn’t going to be an ordinary gig for this was an experimental silent set. 

As UK laws permit noise curfews for 11, 2000 trees have found an ingenious way around this law that allows them to have live sets later than 11. The catch? Everyone wears silent disco headphones and the band mix is broadcasted to the headphones. 

It’s quite frankly bizarre, seeing a class act like The Xcerts giving their all on stage, only to take your headphones off and there’s no noise coming from them. Regardless, they were fantastic, playing bangers such as “It feels like falling in love” and “Drive me wild” they were a great way to close out the first day at trees. 

The Thursday was stacked, starting off our day we checked out the extremely underrated punk pop soloist FREAK, then moving onto Superbloom, Unpeople, False reality and Dream nails before the Brighton punk super duo of SNAYX, who never fail to bring their energy and rage to a festival and always know how to get a crowd going. With songs protesting change and anger at the police force and politics, they were a perfect precursor to the rebellion that kneecap would bring later that night. 

Moving on, The Hunna took to stage with their festival anthem tracks such as bonfire, igniting the crowd in community spirit as well as debuting a new track “Hide and seek” to the audience. 

Big special then took to the main stage, enamoring the crowd with their raw punk energy. Rallying the people with their passionate lyricism and industrial edge, Big Special truly showed they deserve all the hype around them at the moment.  

American pop rock band PVRIS then followed with the first subheadline slot of the weekend. Playing anthems such as My House and You and I as well as their track Snake from the hit Netflix show Arcane. Each song was reciprocated with pits and huge singalongs. They brought the energy and warmed the crowd up perfectly for the headline of the night. 

The time had finally come, since their sudden emergence into the main stream over the last year, kneecap have found them selves topping the daily news cycles day after day with their advocacy against the genocide of Gaza. Mo Chara (Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh) even found himself in the courts, fighting his right to free speech after losing his US visa for voicing his support for the Palestinian people at Coachella. More recently, their Glastonbury set was banned for live broadcast due to the BBC’s worries over what they might say, instead choosing to show Bob Vylan which backfired with their intentions massively. 

Amongst all the pressure from those in authority and their want to silence Kneecap, 2000 trees refused to bend the knee. And as they came to the stage to end the Thursday night, displaying facts about the abhorrence of the Gaza genocide, the crowd erupted with Irish and Palestinian flags flying in the sky. It truly felt like the festival field had become a revolution

The trio played through their hits as the crowd devolved further into chaotic pits and flares – whilst they interjected with jabs at prime minister Kier Starmar, Israel and the state of the world as a whole.

Before ending on fan favourites H.O.O.D and Recap with DJ Próvaí Getting in the crowd to rally everyone one last time. They were a fantastic end to the first full day of music at 2000 trees.

*****

Friday

After a late night at the silent disco and a complete exhaustion from the beating heat, we started the day slowly. First up was KEG, a fun, silly and brassy punk band with intricate songwriting with a haunting undertone in parts. Super interesting set, sending off with their hit track Kids, a song about a father absolutely hating their children. If that sounds like your thing, then definitely go check them out! 

We then followed up with Hail the Sun from California , a fitting name for a day that started so hot. Math Rocky, energetic and blast beat heaven before moving onto to the palate cleanser that was the legendary Frank Turner. 

Although originally intended to be a secret set, it was absolutely clear that this was the worst secret we’d ever seen. With a packed forest stage, Frank serenaded the crowd in a lovely exclusive singalong set playing his album Love IRE & Song in full.

He dedicated the title track to the previous night headliners kneecap and praised trees for not cancelling Kneecap “no matter what your beliefs are, you shouldn’t be prosecuted for speaking your opinion”. Showing a beautiful camaraderie that transcended music genres.

Moving on we saw Delta sleep with their intricate time signatures and crazy tempo changes showing of their incredibly impressive tight musicianship, trash boat then teased an upcoming UK tour on the main stage, with a track list filled with older bangers satisfying the ultimate fan service.

Graphic nature then took to the Cave stage with brutal chonky riffs that cut through swinging arms and flying bodies. The bassist even came down and joined the circle pit running with fans whilst playing along to breakdowns. Graphic nature were seriously incredible, a huge highlight from the weekend. 

Sub headliners coheed and cambria then took to the main stage before emo royalty Taking Back Sunday wowed everybody with fantastic vocals from Adam Lazzara orchestrating the crowd back through time with hits such as “cute without the e” and “MakeDamnSure”, soundtracking a field full of old heartbreak. 

As the day tickets left and some went to sleep, everyone who was left wanting more from the night headed to the silent disco for another consecutive night. Where Hang the DJ played a fantastic set with full crowd participation for pillar pits, the hockey kockey, reverse musical statues and a plethora of absolute bangers that spanned all of the music industry remixed into rave beats. The only place you’d see Mozart and Time to say goodbye hard bass style and it was so much fun.

*****

Saturday

The sun then rose on the last day of 2000 trees with the likes of gen and the generates, the Molotovs and Catbite echoed across the fields of tents. We started our day with Bristol’s own Splitchain, circle pitting in a cloud of dust, the crowd gave it their all. Lead singer Bert Martínez-Cowles then advertised free merch for crowd surfers and the bodies proceeded to fly. 

We then caught up and comers Girlband! At the NEU stage followed by favourites Vukov on the main stage before one of the world’s last performances of Californian legends Letlive. Reuniting for a final world tour it was absolute chaos in the best way. Saying farewell to racks such as Muther and dreamers disease before being cut off early in safety concerns as lead vocalist Jason Butler climbed to the roof canopy of the main stage, leaving the microphone hanging from the stage lights as a “fuck you” for cutting their set. Leaving quiet the impression on the audience 

We were then left with a final three-way clash to end the night. Headliners Alexisonfire took to the main stage, dramatic metalcore violin fronted imminence took to the cave and TikTok famed pop rock singer songwriter Røry took to the forest stage. 

Alexisonfire played banger after banger of their hits with unparalleled energy and a thirst for complete showmanship.

Immanence created their own world in the Cave, with dramatic breakdowns and pure ambience that drew wonder and violence in an incredible blend of classical movie like soundtracks and brutal breakdowns. I had personally never heard of them before 2000 trees and I instantly left a fan.

Røry sang through heartbreak and loss in a touching and emotional performance within the trees of the forest. Dedicating her song “Jesus & John Lennon” to her mother and to anyone who had lost loved ones in the crowd. In a beautiful scene of tears and phone torches, it felt like a touching community bonding over the pain in their lives and learning to move onwards. A wonderfully healing experience and a beautiful end to an incredible 2000 Trees 2025

THE SONGBIRD HQ