Let's start with the basics...

2000 Trees is a music festival. Specifically, an alternative music festival.

Trees has been running since 2007 and is based at Upcote Farm near Cheltenham. Totally independent, while most festivals are run by mammoth companies like Live Nation and Festival Republic, Trees was started by a group of guys who loved going to festivals but had grown weary of the things that blighted the experience. The end result is an event that really is one of the stand-out weekends of the festival season.

Who are you to judge a festival?

A good question. Generally speaking, my credential when writing any review is that I’m an enthusiastic user of the thing in question. That’s still true here. I’ve been going to music festivals for longer than this one has existed. I’ve spent time in many a field, surrounded by people, usually smelly people, listened to hundreds of bands, many of whom have told me and the 50,000 people around me that they’re having the best gig of their lives, and I’ve camped, stayed in hotels and used Airbnbs as I’ve grown older. I too have thought to myself, “this is great, but it could be so much better”. The difference between people like us and people like James Scarlett, Rob Scarlett, Andy Rea, Si Maltas, Mark Gardiner and Brendan Herbert is that they were actually able to turn those thoughts into action. But yes, let’s just say I have a little experience in this area and I’m not afraid to say what I think.

Ok, so it's a festival for people who are discerning about their festival experience, is it really that good?

Yes.

This was my first time ever visiting 2000 Trees. Obviously I’ve been aware of it for years, but like everyone else, I’m often drawn to the big line-ups at the likes of Download and the ease of only having to give up a day for something like Slam Dunk. But after coming away from Trees this year, my main feeling was: why did it take me so long to try this?

Full disclosure: I went VIP. VIP at most festivals is incredibly expensive. At Download, for example, it’s super valuable because it cuts out a huge amount of walking, but they really make you pay for it. At Trees, it wasn’t quite so costly for us because I’d chosen to use the generous early bird offer, saving something like 30% of the ticket cost. It was a reaction to having missed what looked like an amazing line-up in 2025, headlined by one of my favourite bands, Alexisonfire. Is VIP worth it? Probably. We liked the VIP bar and mainly used the VIP toilets, but despite the proximity to the main stage, it’s still a decent walk to some of the furthest stages, which are actually outside the arena by the main camping area. Still, the goodie bag, relatively spacious camping and easy access to the arena tipped the scales in favour of VIP for us.

But what was so good about it? Honestly, it’s hard to put your finger on one thing. It’s just a festival that seems to do almost everything pretty well. But I’ll try and pick out some of the best bits. It’s super inclusive. The range of people I saw at the festival was huge. There were no preconceptions about what you had to look like, be, or behave like to fit in. It’s an alternative music festival, so yes, there are lots of tattoos, lots of band T-shirts and plenty of beards. But the real point is that this is a festival full of allies, so whatever your level of physical ability, gender identity or ethnic background, you can feel almost guaranteed a trouble-free weekend. It doesn’t feel overwhelmingly busy.

I’m told the capacity is around 15,000 and the festival just about sells that out. But it never feels like you’re having to fight to get where you want to be. I’ve been at both Download and Slam Dunk and missed huge chunks of sets I wanted to see because the journey from one stage to another has been gridlocked, or because the stage area was so packed you could forget seeing anything at all. Being 5ft 6 doesn’t help much in those moments either. But at Trees, moving from stage to stage doesn’t feel traumatic, nor does finding a decent spot once you get there.

The setting is beautiful. This is probably most true at The Forest Stage, where a wooden pagoda-like structure is positioned among the trees and you’re welcome to sit or stand on the bark-covered slope. Like most festivals, it’s based on a farm, but Upcote is well kept. The only thing you need to be prepared for is that there isn’t much in the way of flat ground, so when you pitch your tent, you need to think carefully about which direction you’ll be sleeping.

The music is great. I’ve taken the time to look at Trees line-up posters over the years. Generally speaking, you’ll find something familiar at the top of the bill each day, but once you get past those top two rows, things get a bit more niche. As someone who has typically been drawn in by spectacular line-ups, yes, I am desperate to go to When We Were Young, I think the thing that has prevented me from making Trees part of my summer in past years is that I simply haven’t known enough of the artists. Well, that was my mistake. The standard of the music over the weekend is very high and it’s an excellent opportunity to find new music to listen to, especially when your Spotify playlists are getting worn out and you’re struggling to discover something fresh. What a shame I couldn’t split myself across multiple stages at once.

Even the food is surprisingly good. Before going deeper on this, yes, the food isn’t cheap. A meal at a festival is now going to set you back at least £15; there’s no escaping it. But it’s also about what you get for that £15, and that’s where Trees has it right. All of the vendors are independent of the festival. If you didn’t know, when you go to Download, despite appearances, that food often isn’t coming from an independent trader. That van is owned by the festival operators. The relevance of that is that the vendors at Trees are genuinely competing with each other for your business and actually care about what they’re serving. I ate well over the weekend and although my bank balance isn’t looking its best, I don’t feel taken advantage of.

Shout out to Suzie’s for the great-value and super-tasty cheesy chips, and to the ice cream vans, which had different flavours every day and never disappointed.

The people are just great. Thinking of coming to Trees? Leave the nonsense at home. It didn’t matter who I interacted with over the course of the weekend. Everyone was kind, generous, or just generally nice. On my third visit to Suzie’s, I was given some Haribo with my food, presumably by Suzie herself. When I told a passer-by her ice cream looked amazing, she wouldn’t carry on her journey until I’d tried it myself. Every time I left or returned to the VIP area, Sam, on security every day from 8am to 8pm, was ridiculously upbeat. That guy deserves a raise and a holiday. Buying a drink usually came with a side of friendly conversation, and moving through a crowd to get to the front involved kindness, the odd apology for making people move, but never any issues. If you wanted to mosh or crowdsurf, that was an option. If you wanted to stand five yards from the front, off to the left, and still have room to breathe, jump and see, that was fine too.

It really is for the fans. Despite saying they probably wouldn’t, in the end Trees brought in a large screen on Saturday evening so we could watch the second half of England vs Norway. Many festivals already have screens for their stages. Trees doesn’t, because it doesn’t need them. Bringing in a screen like that isn’t cheap. Not only that, I suspect it didn’t make or break a single person’s decision on whether to buy a ticket. That means allowing us to watch half a football match, and then extra time, didn’t make 2000 Trees a single penny in revenue. They did it because they knew it was the right thing to do. Saturday is for fancy dress. It’s not obligatory, but there are free tickets in it for the winners of the contest, and some people braved the heat and wore their costumes all day. Heroes, one and all.

So That all sounds really good... What are the downsides?

There aren’t many, but let’s give the full balance. Generally speaking, they’re things that can’t really be controlled. It was incredibly hot and, given that climate change is real, it probably will be very hot in future too. It is a festival in July after all. As a result, I drank more and spent more money on soft drinks than I care to admit. It was inescapable. The good news is that the site didn’t run out of cold drinks or water across the weekend. It is quite hilly. It isn’t cheap. Although tickets are not expensive compared with alternative festivals, we reckon that as a couple we spent over £1,300 on the full weekend. And it does cost £10 for a shower. We brought our own, which worked well for us, and the festival doesn’t make any money on the showers, but it’s still not cheap. Sometimes bands pull out, it happens to all festivals, but we were excited for Alkaline Trio, who bailed with a week’s notice. Fortunately, Don Broco rode in to save the day and put on a fantastic show. There are also a lot of in-jokes. There’s a crowd of people who have been coming to this festival for years and years and, no doubt, jokes that have developed over time have stuck around. That’s really cool, and for those people it’s part of Trees festival lore. But as a newbie, don’t expect there to be a guide to what any of that means. The good news is that people are nice enough to explain if you ask, but I think it’ll take a few visits before I really understand what slugs have to do with Camp Solo.

Final Thoughts

James, Rob, Andy, Si, Mark and Brendan set out to create a better festival, free from the flaws that seem to dog more commercial ventures. They unequivocally succeeded. Obviously, you need to be willing to camp in a field for a number of days, have the means to pay for the festival and everything that comes with it, and probably like punk, pop punk, emo, post-hardcore, metal, or some combination of those genres. But if those things are true for you, and you’re generally not an awful person, then this is probably the festival for you.

Have I taken advantage of Trees’ 30% early bird offer to buy my 2027 tickets? You bet I have and you can too, by clicking here. It’s the 20th anniversary, and I can’t wait to see what they do to celebrate.

Notable Artists

• Don Broco

• Funeral for a Friend

• Neck Deep

• Pup

• Superheaven

• The Bronx

• The Dirty Nil

• Sunny Day Real Estate

• Cancer Bats

• Arcane Roots

• Glassjaw

• Dinosaur Pile Up

• High Vis