Four Things Which Made Me Fall Even More In Love With 2000 Trees Festival

I haven’t done a proper camping festival in quite a few years. In 2016 I had the craziness of ‘Drownload’, my first experience of an air mattress at V and the luxury of a campervan at Glastonbury. Over the following few years I’ve pushed the boat out and gotten hotels when I’ve been to Download. And since then I’ve not done more than a day at another festival. That is until July 2019 when I bit the bullet and did a full weekend at 2000 trees.

I’d heard about the festival lots, especially as it keeps winning best medium sized festival. And in 2018 me and Luke headed to Upcote Farm for a single day and fell in love with the festival. I even did a whole post on my first impressions as soon as I got home. So we actually bought our tickets last year as soon as we came back as the festival offer 20% off the following years tickets if you buy them within a week of the current year finishing. I think this is a great incentive to get people to repurchase.

So we had our tickets before we even knew the lineup. This could have been tricky but of course I always knew there would be things we’d want to see. And new bands we’d end up discovering. After spending four days in the fields here are some of the things which made me fall even more in love with 2000 trees.

The festival size is perfect

There are around 10,000 people who come to 2000 trees. This sounds like a lot but is quite small when you compare that Reading which is about 90,000 and Download which is about 110,000. I’m used to walking a lot at festivals as everything is so spread out but this isn’t the case at 2000 trees.

It took us about 5 minutes to walk from our camp to the stage closest to us. And it’s no more than a 5 minute walk between the stages furthest apart. It’s the kind of festival you can pop back to your camp site for a sit down and a drink if there’s not a band you want to see. I loved being able to do this as I could have a comfy seat (or even a nap!)

The site was so clean

It’s rare that I ever see a festival site as clean as 2000 trees but it was amazing. There were quite a lot of volunteers going around keeping the site clean. But the rest of the people there as a general rule seemed really good with keeping things looking nice.

This may be because the average age of the crowd is a little older than you find at some festivals. So they’re a bit more considerate. But this made the camping element so much more enjoyable. Even the toilets in the main areas seemed to be kept pretty clean. I only encountered a pretty grim toilet once over the whole weekend which is pretty good going.

The site were doing their part for the environment

When you go to a festival it’s hard to be too concious of the environment with all the disposable waste and plastic around. But 2000 trees are trying to do their bit to combat that. You can’t buy a plastic bottle of drink anywhere on site, instead everything is cans. I appreciated this no end as I actually prefer drinking a cold coke out of a can than a bottle.

Around the site there were quite a few recycling points for your cans which always seemed to be well used. And there was also a water innotive where you could pay about £4 I think and get your bottle refilled with filtered water all weekend. I think this is a great as it not only encourages people to drink more water, but it means you’re refilling one bottle all weekend and not re-purchasing.

Lots of girl power in the bands

I actually noticed so many bands playing with female power houses in them. And we watched a fair few of them including Vukovi, Yonaka, Muncie Girls, Rolo Tomasi, Souer, Milk Teeth, Dream State and so many more.

I never used to be a massive fan of female vocalists but this has changed so much in recent years. Vukovi were an absolute highlight for us this year, but we knew they would be. Yonaka did an amazing acoustic set in the Forest which made me realise how incredible Theresa’s voice is. And Soeur who were a brand new find for us but left us wanting more.

Have you ever been (or heard of) 2000 trees?

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