2000 Trees ‘09

August 18, 2009 > Featured, Reviews

Positioned deep in the heart of the Cotswolds, just down the road from sleepy Withington (not Whittington, which ourselves and several other festival goers discovered the hard way!) 2000 Trees is small but perfectly formed ethical festival with a capacity of, you guessed it, 2000 (ish). It’s full of friendly familiar faces, which gives the festival a warm and welcoming spirit… despite the torrential rain!!Spread across two fields and surrounded by, unsurprisingly, a fair few trees the site consisted simply of two stages; the main Treehouse Stage and the tented Leaf Lounge - though let’s not forget The Green House - a tent/canopy dance “arena” playing everything from Michael Jackson to Modeselektor. The two Lebowski’s bars kept us fully topped up with Badgers Bottom Cider all weekend and we never went hungry with a multitude of tasty treats to choose from, including festival favourite Pieminister, and lets face it festivals these days are incomplete without a good hearty pie!

Rolo Tomassi thankfully provide us with much needed energetic entertainment between down-heartening downpours. Vocalist Eva Spence switches microphones and personalities, singing sweetly, growling dementedly and shaking her hips all around the stage, while the rest of the band belt out loud glitched-out hardcore at a dizzying pace. They were definitely Friday’s highlight (apart from securing a pitch equidistant from the toilets, stage and bar!), though that isn’t a label hard to secure when you’re competing against bands such as The King Blues and Fightstar, who are quite frankly embarrassing to watch.

Baffled ever so slightly by the 11 o’clock curfew, festival goers were drawn towards the main stage for the headphone disco where they were offered a choice of two DJs and the chance to dance under the night sky until the early hours.

Saturday bought sunshine and more of the Badgers Arse - good times!
The order of the day was mainly folk, including Cheltenham’s favourite almost-pop-star Jim Lockey who played just before the excellent Brighton seven piece Diagonal. Clearly influenced heavily by bands such as Kyuss and Can, Diagonal deliver a full set of jazz-prog-rock which was a welcome interlude to the day’s proceedings.

Dananananackyroyd present us with a vibrant array of pop songs, hugging and hair cuts while Dr Butlers Hatstand Medicine Band turn the Leaf Lounge into a 1920s dance hall with jovial jazzy jingles and an excellent cover of Outkast’s ‘Miss Jackson’.  British Sea Power bring a close to the day and the festival with their not-so-unique, but nevertheless enjoyable brand of indie-pop. Their stage covered in branches and surrounded by trees, it feels like a pretty perfect way for the weekend to end.