LIVE REVIEW: 2000 TREES FESTIVAL 2025
Copyright: Sophie Ditchfield (Photo)
Hands up if you've heard this one: “Oh you've never been to Trees? Man you have to go, it's the best festival ever!”
2000 Trees may have accidently become a pyramid scheme. The uninitiated come away from their first trees experience spouting the mantra to anyone that will listen, vowing to return every year- regardless of the weather, regardless of the line up, simply ready for the best few days of the year with a ton of likeminded people in a field.
So what makes this Gloucestershire party so infamously beloved? Livesphere Magazine immersed ourselves in the community, the music and the blazing 30+ degree heat to find out.
2000 Trees takes place over four days, with music beginning on the Wednesday afternoon and wrapping up late Saturday night. This year Haggard Cat got 2025 underway on the Forest stage, to a fresh, clean and excitable crowd.
“We've been coming to this festival for a decade now it never gets less special,” Blank Atlas mused over on the Word stage before promising to be back with a new album soon and closing with ‘Better off Dead’ which properly got the early doors mosh pits going and the heat rising already.
Blank Atlas - Copyright: Gareth Bull (Photo)
As fans filtered in and claimed their space in the fields, the promise of a stacked line up and the must-sees on the bill were the main topics murmuring through the camp sites.
In their first of two appearances of the festival, Unpeople delivered a rowdy set of covers and exclusives on the forest stage. Coming out the gate hard with Beastie Boys ‘Fight For Your Right’ through to the last notes of System of a Down's ‘Sugar’, the four piece kept it in high gear, the promise of the carnage of the following day's main stage set left hanging in the air.
Later on, into the evening after a balmy first day, Manchester quartet Hot Milk took over the forest stage.
“Are we having a boogie tonight or what Trees?” asked Hannah Mee as the band crashed through a set of ultimate party rock tracks, gladly received by a packed-out crowd throwing themselves around and attempting to avoid smashing into the trees situated vaguely in the mosh pits.
Hot Milk - Copyright: Joe Singh (Photo)
Thursday rolled around and Karen Dio stared straight into the sun that was relentlessly baking the main stage and got the crowd further warmed up for the day.
“Today is my first time ever playing at 2000 Trees,” Dio grinned before reminding us all to drink plenty of water.
‘Cut Your Hair’ stepped up the energy and a cheeky 30 second song called ‘Buy my merch’ did exactly what it said on the tin.
Karen Dio - Copyright: Jez Pennington (Photo)
Freak made a valiant attempt to rile the crowd sheltering from the sun in The Axiom, undoubtedly going away with a few new fans of his high-octane DIY punk, enjoyed from the best shady spot on site.
Next up on the main stage, Himalayas winded their way through the funky, the sassy and the crushing, perfectly combined on their hit, ‘Thank God I'm Not You’. The quartet commanded the stage and assembled fans like absolute pros.
Up next, Unpeople hit two for two with almost constant crowd surfers during ‘smother’ and pure chaos for their closing track ‘the garden’, everyone's earworm for the weekend. You couldn't pass a camp for the entire weekend without hearing “DA DADA DA DA DA’ coming from somewhere close by.
unpeople - Copyright: Carla Mundy (Photo)
Down in the forest Baby Said led us through a movie guessing game for their song ‘Mean Girlz’ (a lot more challenging when you don't already know the song name.) The sisters so in sync that frequently their dance moves matched up perfectly. Baby Said's placing in the schedule a wonderful booking, late afternoon grooves set the mood just right.
Bilk from Essex followed with rowdy punk in sound and attitude. “This is our first gig in a forest- weyhey” they confirmed before treating fans to ‘Slag’ from their latest album ‘Essex, Drugs and Rock n Roll’. Honestly, I'm not sure how you could get more punk than that.
PVRIS saw in the sunset with a well curated set, plenty to enjoy for fans of 2014's White Noise as well as moments those who appreciate the band's newer and somewhat heavier sound.
Singer Lynn Gunn hit impressive notes - left, right and centre and curated several seamless transitions between tracks before we knew what was happening.
PVRIS - Copyright: Sophie Ditchfield (Photo)
Back in the forest, Bambie Thug put a Hex on the gathered with their first appearance at Trees. Just Thug and their two masked dancers winding and thrusting their way around the stage. No instruments, no staging, just pure energy.
“It feels so magical to be in the trees,” Thug declared looking thrilled at their crowd, over the weekend, an almost universal look from artists performing on the quirkiest stage at the festival.
The much-anticipated Kneecap acknowledged the somewhat unexpected embracing of their unique brand of politically charged Hip Hop/Rap at a festival like Trees which goes heavy on the alternative rock genres. Despite their left-field-esk booking, Trees fans welcomed the Irish trio with gusto for the third time - the last year Kneecap played it was in the early afternoon in the forest in the pouring rain - a bit of a contrast to 2025 where they were undoubtedly the most talked about band on the bill, headlining the main stage to the biggest crowd of the weekend.
Addressing the pressure on the organisers to cancel the band's appearance at the festival, coming from all angles, right up to the actual Prime Minister of the UK, Kneecap applauded the organisers for “standing on ten toes and telling them to fuck off”. The sound may be different but the spirit of punk well and truly lives in Kneecap. Playing out with their quintessential track ‘THE RECAP’, the crowd donned their headphones, grabbed late night snacks, fresh pints and settled in for the madness of a full festival silent disco.
Kneecap - Copyright: Joe Singh (Photo)
Dream State led the festivities down in the forest with the night's live silent disco set, storming brilliantly through their hits and a barely rehearsed version of Limp Bizkit's ‘Break Stuff’. Battling through some tech difficulties during ‘Chin Up Princess’, singer Jessie led us through a bizarre but hilarious singalong to Kumbaya before getting the show back up and running, declaring: “When this drops let the Lord be with you.”
Dream State - Copyright: Jez Pennington (Photo)
Friday brought with it the hottest day (so far) of the event and with showers closed down for fear of water shortages, campers took to dousing their sunburned and sticky bodies at the water points. Troopers, the lot of them.
Press Club brought their insatiable brand of Aussie chaos to the main stage with singer Natalie Foster throwing herself around, complete with handstands, prancing across the front of stage speakers and generally not standing still for a second. Press Club's thumping bass and frenetic indie vibes just what the crowd needed to wake up to the third day of music.
Press Club - Copyright: Carla Mundy (Photo)
The day proceeded into relentless heat with temperatures well into the 30s, making some packed tents the ultimate endurance test to catch your favourite bands. Cloud Nothings, Graphic Nature and Venus Grrrls played subsequent tent stages at the hottest part of the day. Both bands and fans should be commended for the collective dedication to having a damn good time regardless.
Orchards spent almost every moment of their set in the forest in disbelief. After playing a stripped back set on the Camp Turner stage the previous night, their full show was a wonder of fun, friends and in singer Lucy Evers case - firsts, as the crowd took her surfing virginity during ‘luv you 2’, fans carrying her away so enthusiastically they ignored her gesturing for a return to the stage and she didn't make it back in time for her cue. Not a person cared, there was only utter joy in the forest at the math rock quartet playing for the first time since 2022.
“By all means open a pit,” Evers quipped as their set, and the evening drew to a close. Politest band in rock right there.
Orchards - Copyright: Gareth Bull (Photo)
In Trees world you have to remember, Saturday is the new Sunday as the final day of the festival got underway. Saturday was also ‘Heroes Day’ the official fancy dress theme of 2025. Many, many DC and Marvel superheroes wandered the site, as well as homemade tree outfits, and various other more niche hero related get-ups.
“I need someone's shoes; this stage is like lava!”
Vukovi learned the hard way that no shoes on stage is a vibe until you realise the black floor you are on has been absorbing direct sunlight for the past week. Singer Janine Shilstone hopped around with enthusiastic necessity during the band's opening song before admitting defeat.
“No one get these crocs in their pictures of me”, she requested, looking at the gathered photographers in the pit.
The rest of the set went off with Shilstone manically throwing herself around because she wanted to, not simply to avoid third degree burns.
The massive track, ‘MY GOD HAS GOT A GUN’ really got the pits moving, new era Vukovi especially resonating with the fans. During this song the band were joined on stage by Jake Crawford of unpeople, sending the crowd feral.
VUKOVI - Copyright: Gareth Bull (Photo)
Punk lovelies Lowlives ripped it up on the Nu stage, the rumbling, relentless ‘Freaking out’ the track that really got the crowd going.
Josh Taylor of The Hara spent more time on top of the forest stage rather than on it, channelling Letlive from the other side of the festival. Crowd favourite ‘Fool & The Thief' caused a beautiful singalong and dust clouds from the mosh pits started getting serious at this point, while shirts were waved around for a rowdy, punky finale to ‘Friends’.
While Letlive's Jason Butler predictably treated the main stage's lighting rig as a jungle gym, the festival's vibe reached a crescendo as the sun finally abated and Alexisonfire brought proceedings to a close, save for RØRY over at the forest.
“You'd have to be a crazy bitch to play a new song at a festival,” she winked and did just that while pouring fake blood down herself offering one of the heaviest tracks of her set and an interesting insight into where RØRY's sound could be heading.
RØRY - Copyright: Carla Mundy (Photo)
With Mark Watson winding everyone down with some laughs over on the Word stage, 2000 Trees, regrettably, devastatingly and emotionally drew to a close.
For anyone still yet to experience the Trees cult, 2026 has got to be your year. Listen to your friends when they say it's the best festival ever, it's not hyperbole, Trees just feels unlike any of its contemporaries, from the daring bookings of bands like Kneecap and an embracing of tribalism with the named and reserved camp areas, there is a heart and soul that the founders have retained with their commitment to throwing the best party of the year and we're along for the ride come what may.
Trees forever.
PVRIS - Copyright: Sophie Ditchfield (Photo)