Review: 2000 Trees Festival 2017 – Saturday

As most woke in the early hours on Saturday with a killer hangover following a night at the silent disco, something magical was happening in the woodland; a couple at the festival got married! For those in the mood for celebrating, Saturday offered another killer day’s worth of acts to see the festival out in style. The first band for the day on the main stage were Freeze the Atlantic; who have past history with the festival from playing before and also being a sort of Trees ‘supergroup’ consisting of members from both Reuben and Hundred Reasons. Although the audience seemed a little sparse at the beginning of their set, this soon filled out and proved to be a great opener for the day.

Next I went to check out two acts that people seem to have been raving about recently as the ‘next big things’ in rock; Soeur and Bad Sign. Soeur’s set was packed out on the Neu stage, as bad ass grunge front women Tina and Anya rocked out and amazing ex-Maybeshewill drummer James provided the beating heart of their gritty and dark rock. Heavy rock band Bad Sign provided one of the best sets of the day in the Cave as they blew the audience away with their brilliantly innovative rock; make sure you check them out before they get too big, as they will be huge soon following their release of debut album Live and Learn.

I stayed in the Cave for the next set from Manchester’s The Hyena Kill, as one of my camp mates at the festival had highly recommended them; I was not left disappointed by the turbo-charged rock chaos that ensued. I then relaxed with a cold drink and some summery tunes from their fellow Mancunians Spring King, who performed a blinder of a set on the main stage despite the heat.

Heavier bands were not in shortage today, as I caught two sets on the Cave and Axiom stages from The One Hundred and Palm Reader. I’d not heard any of The One Hundred’s music before, but it was in a rap-metal crossover vein that wasn’t too dissimilar to bands such as Hacktivist, so I really enjoyed it. Also, front man Jacob Field definitely deserved the title of both scariest and sassiest man of the day, as he switched between yelling in people’s faces and pulling off some sassy dance moves throughout the entire set. This band certainly know how to keep you on your toes during a live show. Palm Reader were on after this in the Axiom, which came as a bit of a surprise for me as I was expecting to see Norweigan band Slotface; but they’d had to pull out of the festival due to illness.

Next up, the worst guarded ‘secret set’ of the festival from The Xcerts. Rumours had been flying around for weeks, so it was no real shocker when the band were announced as last minute additions to the Cave just a few days before the festival. Luckily, they are firm favourites there, and blew everyone away as per usual. With brilliant new single Feels Like Falling In Love released recently, I am very excited about their new material.

Lower Than Atlantis had unfortunately had to cancel their acoustic set in the Forest earlier in the day, due to the lead singer having a sore throat; but they didn’t want to disappoint fans at the festival by cancelling their main set, so plowed on regardless. Although front man Mike Duce’s voice was not as strong as usual, they still played well and the fans definitely helped them out by participating in some wonderful singalongs.

The last two bands of the day for me were Area 11 on the Neu Stage and Slaves on the main stage; both of which were surprisingly good. Area 11 are a pop-rock band from Nottingham who draw upon all sorts of genres; even including J-Pop, so have quite an individual and catchy sound that seems to work particularly well in a festival setting. They had the small stage packed out for their set, which was quite impressive considering that a lot of people would have just stayed by the main stage between Lower Than Atlantis and Slaves’ set to save their spot. From when I’ve previously listened to them, headliners Slaves are not my cup of tea; but my mind was blown by their headline performance at 2000 Trees as they proved to be powerful and enigmatic and sent this year’s festival out on a high. They are definitely ones worth seeing live.

As fans continued partying late into the night at the silent disco, the eleventh 2000 Trees drew to a close; and as always I was definitely sad to leave that place for another year. Bring on 2000 Trees 2018!