2000 Trees 2011!
2000 Trees is a small festival set on the picturesque Upcote Farm in Cheltenham that was awarded The Grass Roots Festival award in 2010. 2000 Trees rightly prides itself on its friendly and intimate atmosphere, high quality food and drink (including the sturdy Badgers Bottom cider), its green ethos, 2nd best toilets at a UK festival last year, and ofcourse bringing together the absolute best in new and underground British music.
Admittedly before Frank Turner announced he was headlining 2000 Trees last summer, the festival had not registered on my radar, and so I went along without any ideas of what to expect of a small British music festival (any skepticism I had was thoroughly erased before hand as they announced personal favourites Twin Atlantic, The Xcerts, Ben Marwood and Crazy Arm). After returning fully converted that small festivals were the way forward, with this one setting a prime example, we bought tickets for this year within the week and waited anxiously for line-up announcements since.
Being part of a large group heading to Upcote farm we decided to pretend we’re classy and remove the hassle of pitching our own tent. Instead splashing out for the services of the charming Mike and his bell tents. Expensive but worth it.
The Cave - a new stage added for 2011 - was our first port of call, where we settled in ready to catch country punks with a message to preach Crazy Arm. I can’t think of many bands better to get you in the mood for a weekend of music - for me they are Devon’s answer to Flogging Molly. You are a terrible person if you do not feel the urge to pump your fist in the air as they break into classics such as Still to Keep and Broken by the Wheel. The extra addition of female backing vocals was a nice touch.
Headlining Thursday night were 3 of Ayr’s finest in Sucioperro. While some may only know frontman JP Reid from his work in Marmaduke duke, they would be foolish to overlook this trio’s work especially newly released The Heart String & How To Pull It from which comes the beautiful Reflexes of the Dead and recent release Land/slide. They leave the stage to the crowd echoing back the final refrain from Conception Territory which was an inspired way to end the first night of the festival.
Friday began for me with Dive Dive (3/4 are again unjustly better known as the Sleeping Souls (backing band for Frank Turner)). The songwriting talents of Jamie Stuart are obvious, while the crowd feeds off the natural charisma of drummer Nigel Powell. Sharp driving number Liar is enough to get the crowd going but it’s in Planet of The Apes based - Ape Like Me where they really shine. These guys have more than just Potential.
A quick trip to the far end of the campsite found us at the Greenhouse stage, eagerly awaiting the loudest one-man-and-his-acoustic show you’ll see: Barry Dolan AKA OxygenThief. He arrives onstage announcing this is his 200th gig and subsequently persuades everyone to give up their comfy haystacks and join in with clapping and footstomps. Despite some over enthusiastic foot stomping which cost him the use of his pedals, this is genuinely one of the most fun shows of the weekend so far as he breaks into Terry Nutkins Salute and Too Many Trees. A cover of Andrew WK’s party hard just goes to show that he doesn’t believe you need a whole band and a massive rig to rock. If you haven’t been to one of the first 200 shows get to one soon!
Shortly after on the Greenhouse stage is Ben Marwood. Ben’s popularity has clearly grown after supporting Frank Turner recently but it’s no more than he deserves. His performance on this same stage (although it was a caravan then) last year was definitely a highlight. This year built on that and was truly special. Bringing out hits from his recent album Outside There’s a Curse such as Singalong and Oh My Days - a song about waking up hungover in Reading - it’s clear that the crowd is lovely every second of this, and so is Ben. Older songs such as Claire and Horatio Dies also make appearances before finishing up on his classic rendition of the Postal Service’s, The District Sleeps Alone Tonight, if there was anyone not singing along before hand, they are now. This is capped off by a standing ovation that could not even be upstaged by a backstage accident on a quadbike…
Next over on the main stage were the soon to be massive Twin Atlantic. These boys brand of rock music with brilliant hooks and unashamed scottish vocals is always a treat and impossible not to sit up and take notice. I’m a massive fan of TA and have seen them more times than I can count, so ofcourse I was straight down the front for this. Sadly from the setup we couldn’t really catch the vocals from that close to the stage but I had been preaching to neighbouring tents that this would be a highlight of the weekend and was not to be missed and they were impressed from where they stood. There are not many bands out there who can go from soaring tunes Free and Edit Me, to stripped back hits like Crashland so seamlessly and you should take every chance to see these guys live.
The first band I caught anything of on Saturday were Chewing on Tinfoil. I hadn’t heard much of or about this band but from what I caught they seemed like an exciting ska punk band from Ireland and I definitely wanna catch them again.
I then proceeded to spend Saturday gently supping on cider while painted like a badger catching glimpses of Imperial Leisure, Stagecoach and The Twilight Sad, until it was time to watch Frightened Rabbit deservedly make their first festival headlining appearance. Having seen Frightened Rabbit before I knew there isn’t many things more haunting than Scott Hutchison’s Scottish yelps but it’s hard to predict how some brilliant but admittedly more dour songs from their repertoire may go down at a festival. It seemed as they may have had the same concerns and possibly tailored their setlist to include more of their upbeat songs including inspiring Swim Until You Can’t See Land and Living in Colour. No FRabbits set would be complete though without Keep Yourself Warm – about loveless sex, and clear fan favourite Heads Roll Off. For me finishing on The Loneliness and The Scream is such a perfect finish for a festival – It’s impossible not to join in with your best Woah-oh-oahs. The only sad thing about Frightened Rabbits set is that it brought with it the end of another mind-blowing 2000Trees.
As I write this news reports are telling us of various festivals being cancelled or struggling to sell tickets/make profit. Well clearly if you do it right - like the guys at 2000 Trees are - there will not be a shortage of music lovers queuing to get tickets.