2000 Trees festival 2023: Everything you need to know

2000 Trees festival returns to Upcote Farm in Gloucestershire on the July 5 for a weekend full of amazing alternative music. Headlined by the fantastic Soft Play, Welsh rockers Bullet for My Valentine, and the inimitable Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes, this will surely be a weekend to remember. After wanting to attend for years, I finally got to attend 2000 Trees myself last year, and it easily cemented itself as my favourite festival. With its relaxed, friendly atmosphere, great line-up, and brilliant silent disco, this festival is one that should be on the radar of any rock fan. The great news is there are still tickets available! Below iseverything you need to know, as well as recommendations on who to check out at the festival.

When?

July 5-8

A standard three day ticket will grant you entry from Thursday the July 6, whilst a 4 day ticket will grant you entry from 2pm on Wednesday 5 July (With bands starting at 4pm). Unlike most other weekend festivals, 2000 Trees finishes on the Saturday night instead of Sunday.

Where?

Upcote Farm, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL54 4BL

Getting there:

By car: The festival is easily reached by car, with car-parking available now for £20 for the weekend.

By coach: Big Green coach run services from London, Birmingham, and Bristol to the festival on Thursday, and back on Sunday.

Shuttle Bus: A shuttle bus runs regularly from Cheltenham Spa train station to the festival site on Wednesday and Thursday, and back on Sunday.

Who’s playing?

With day splits now announced for the weekend, here are my top picks for each day of the festival. Timings have not yet been announced however, so I take no responsibility for any brutal clashes that may come as result of such a good lineup!

Wednesday July 5:

Despite not having a full day of music on the Wednesday at Trees, the line-up is still stellar. Playing two sets over the weekend, starting with Wednesday, Bob Vylan are not to be missed. Known for their raucous live shows and crowd participation, they are a perfect band to close the first day of a festival, and catching them on a smaller stage on Wednesday will certainly be an experience! Also playing two sets over the weekend, Holding Absence are one of the best bands around at the moment. With killer vocals, heart-wrenching lyrics, and a legion of dedicated fans there to sing every word, Holding Absence put on a brilliant show. This will be my fifth time seeing the band and I still cannot wait!

Also playing on the Wednesday are Tigercub, a great modern rock band, perfect for fans of Royal Blood, Cleopatrick, and Nothing But Thieves. Delaire the Liar are a truly unique band with fantastic vocals and ridiculous tempos in their tracks that I’m almost out of breath just thinking about! My final recommendation for the Wednesday is SNAYX, a punk band that serve as the perfect warm up for Bob Vylan. For fans of Soft Play and Kid Kapichi (Both of which are also playing at the festival!)

Thursday July 6:

One great thing about the bands booked for 2000 Trees, is the fact that they cover so many genres within alternative music. For those who may lean more to the indie rock side, both Bilk and Carsick are great bands to check out on Thursday. They’re both very energetic bands with matter-of-fact lyrics lamenting on the mundanities of life in modern Britain. NOISY are also a great band to check out if you aren’t wanting something heavy. Their music is perfect for sunny summer days, which everyone will be hoping for!

Thursday features many great punk bands, with Bad Nerves, Kid Kapichi, and Bob Vylan (playing their second set of the weekend) all well worth checking out. For those into pop punk, The Wonder Years are coming overseas to play 2000 Trees for the second time, and are the perfect band to get your pop-punk fix from. I personally can’t wait to see them!

Headlining Thursday is the most exciting band of the festival for me. Returning from their hiatus, Soft Play (formerly known as Slaves) will perform their first show in four years at 2000 Trees. Currently taking setlist suggestions from fans over on their website, it will be amazing to hear their familiar music in a live capacity again, and perhaps they’ll debut some new tracks too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmtU-bLyReU

Friday July 7:

As Everything Unfolds play the festival on Friday, and are perfect for fans of modern metalcore. Their recent EP release is massively catchy, and worth checking out ahead of their set. Also playing are Heriot, another band with a female vocalist. Heriot are a band with a lot of hype surrounding them in the metal scene, returning to 2000 Trees for the second year in a row.

For fans of Modern Baseball and Mom Jeans, Californian emo band Joyce Manor are the ones to see on Friday. I personally can’t wait for the massive sing-along to angsty fan-favourite track ‘Constant Headache’. Dinosaur Pile-Up return to 2000 Trees for the second year in a row, this time higher up the bill. After catching their set and loving it last year, it will be great to see them again. Despite not releasing any new material for a few years, the band have a great back-catalogue, with most of their set made up of tracks from 2019’s brilliant Celebrity Mansions album, which is worth a listen.

Headlining Friday are Bullet for My Valentine. Perfect for fans of classic metal bands, BFMV are probably the biggest band to play the festival, and are sure to put on an amazing set.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sTQ0QdkN3Q

Saturday July 8:

The final day of the festival features Modern Error, an atmospheric post-hardcore band, that offer something quite different to most of the other bands at the festival. Cody Frost may be most known from her feature on the Enter Shikari track ‘Bull’, but she is a great artist in her own right, making catchy alternative pop, with clear influence from the rock scene. Witch Fever are a mancunian heavy punk band, worth checking out for fans of Heriot and Nova Twins. High Vis may be categorised as a hardcore band, but much of their instrumentals are most reminiscent of 90s brit-pop. Their sophomore album Blending is the most accurate picture of their sound as a band, and I can imagine that they’d appeal to many festival-goers. Holding Absence will play their second set of the weekend on Saturday, finally playing the main-stage at the festival for the first time, which has been a long-time coming for the band, and they will have played every single stage of the festival with this set.

The festival will be closed by Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes, a band that need no introduction. With four varied albums under their belt, and always putting on a brilliant show, they are the perfect band to finish the weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF16_JRFC08

Ticket prices:

Tickets are available now for both the weekend and separate days. Student, NHS, and teen discounts are also available, along with VIP tickets. Tickets are sold exclusively through Dice, and the link is here

3-day ticket: £190.50

4-day ticket: £227.50

2-day ticket: £147.46

Wednesday tickets are sold out currently. Individual day tickets are priced at £65, or £36 for the evening only.

Accessibility:

2 for 1 tickets are available for those who require a personal assistant, there are also viewing platforms at every stage for those with an applicable wristband. The link to the access requirement form is available here, you must have purchased a ticket through dice before applying for this.