Alexisonfire - Summer Festival Guide

2000 TREES – 2025, REVIEWED!

July 17, 2025 by Shôn Douglas

Crowds descended on Upcote Farm for the 17^th edition of 2000 Trees and this year it wasn’t just the lineup that was smoking hot!

The forecast was hotter than hell, tipping the mercury to 32 degrees at one point, and so the wellies, ponchos and fleeces were discarded during packing in favour of sunscreen, caps and fans.

WEDNESDAY

The festival site is on a working farm approximately 20 minutes (when there are no queues!) drive from the centre of nearby Cheltenham Spa, where you can also make use of the shuttle bus services from the train station provided by Big Green Coach which runs on Wednesday and Thursday and then back on Sunday for £15 in advance or £18 on the day.

They’re only small roads on the run up to the site, so be prepared to have to wait for a while before entering, but on balance you’re so close to the site entrance once into the parking area that it evens out.

Once through the parking/drop off area it’s down a steep hill, across a narrow bridge, and then uphill again through a rugged pathway before some more wobbly terrain past the campervans.

This year I took a sack truck and it was a big help, even if the wheels weren’t as ‘All Terrain’ as I hoped and my failure to use enough bungee cords led to a couple of profanity laden spills enroute. Many others had trolleys which doubled up as modes of transport for the kiddos, doggos and beer(os) across the weekend.

Setting up my tent was one of the hottest (in the non-sexy way) activities I’ve ever engaged in, trumping even a sauna session. A thermometer I came to obsess over showed 45 degrees in there at one point, eliciting a Ralph Wiggum-esque chuckle of “I’m in danger”.

Festival organisers had been proactive in their advice to attendees to stay safe and make sure they were hydrated included Frank Water who offered unlimited cold, filtered water refills on site for £7.50 or a little more for an addition of cordial. In the run up they were short a few volunteers which caused some logistical problems and long queues initially, but was soon resolved and grateful punters got their fill of ice-cold water.

After an unexpected fly-by from the Red Arrows (in your FACE Glastonbury) it was time to get amongst it! As with previous years, all of the performances on day one were split between The Word stage and The Forest with the main stage area cordoned off until the next day while The Axiom and Cave tents provided some much-needed respite from the sun.

This made it easy to quickly slip from set to set and not miss too much of anyone – a theme for the weekend in all honesty, as the modestly sized site allows you to move quickly between performances – especially from Main Stage to Neu, and Axiom to Cave where you’re basically a minute between them.

Haggard Cat wasted no time in getting the first circle pit of the festival going over in The Forest, kicking off the weekend with a rowdy set, but the need for food was dragging me away from the music and so I hit up Kofu Korean for two of their tasty Bao Buns with extra kimchi (£13).

Then it was over to the merch tent to secure a clashfinder (£8)and pick up t-shirts I had reserved via the website prior to the festival (a really useful function!). There was a broad selection of gear there, including festival exclusives a 2000Trees x Head Above the Waves away football shirt (£45), Lou’s Brews’ 2000Degrees MKII hot sauce (£8), limited edition prints (£20) and even a Tragic: The Gathering playing card!

Festival t-shirts were available in black, white and yellow designs (Adults £30, kids £20) and a sweet glow in the dark long-sleeved number with skeletons on was £35, as was the three-headed dog Cerberus tee.

Back into the shaded Forest and Vower were starting their first of two sets of the weekend. Formed out of the ashes of Black Peaks, Palm Reader, and Toska the five-piece delivered a melodic metal set that filled the forest with big choruses and heavy riffs. Frontman Josh McKeown has an absolutely killer voice and thankfully held enough back for their Saturday afternoon slot.

Unpeople. had received a fair amount of hype ahead of trees and were a “must see” for many. Their Forest set was covers heavy (Beastie Boys, Weezer, Reuben and System of a Down) which is unsurprising given they’ve a handful of songs at their disposal and wanted to keep their powder dry for Thursday’s set– not an issue in this weather. The set was disrupted by two different ends of the spectrum, as one person broke an ankle while a couple became engaged, but the band duly delivered and whet appetites for tomorrow’s Main Stage set.

The shade was my friend at this point, so I stood firm in the Forest and waited for one of the bands I missed out on last year, Blood Command. The Norwegian/Australian collective out of Bergen rock Adidas trackies and in the case of the front row terrorising frontwoman Nikki Brumen a red sequinned tennis dress.

Brumen is a genuine star. Surfing the crowd, laying prone on the stage and doing her bit for the wellbeing of the crowd by spitting water into the crowd (hydration is key folks!). She dedicates a song to her sister, who won’t crowd surf due to having too much jewellery on her and promptly throws herself out there instead – continuing to give her all.

I next caught Welsh punk rock five-piece Panic Shack in the Forest. Their fun-filled, acerbic set was one of the weekend’s highlights. They’re clearly having the time of their lives but also using their platform to provide social commentary.

Adding their voice to support for Kneecap and Bob Vylan, addressing body shaming, during 2022’s ‘I Don’t Really Like It’, a song about the male gaze, they blend into Ting Tings’ anthem ‘That’s Not My Name’. It’s a seething rendition with more bite than the original, and it rocks.

With their self-titled debut released the week after Trees and a UK tour starting in October, Panic Shack are coming for you and we should all be here for it.

I made my way back through to the main site and on the way saw a crowd gathered around Camp Kev’s stage and saw a young lad, called Finnley, probably around four years old, rocking out with his ukelele with the audience cheering and clapping along.

This show will definitely be a core memory to this little Trees-er, and who knows maybe one day he’ll be crushing it on the main stage himself?

Heading to Jerk Yard I grabbed a portion of boneless jerk chicken with rice and peas (£15) which was genuinely belting and set me up for the rest of the evening.

By the time Kid Kapichi walked out in the Forest the humidity levels were well up as bodies filled the space for a glimpse of the first of the band’s two shows.

They announced two of the founding members of the group were standing down, making these their last gigs as a fourpiece and grateful for the crowd turning out. Using their slot to play some of their older material, frontman Jack Wilson admitted they felt a bit rusty playing some of them but the crowd loved it no matter what.

Mancunian rockers Hot Milk were the final act of the night. The band released its latest album Corporation P.O.P. earlier this year and have been touring relentlessly all year with more dates to come, but there were no signs of fatigue on show.

At one point frontwoman Han Mee made reference to some other band from Manchester being on tour “But they’re not ‘ere are they?” and I don’t think anyone in the Forest minded one bit. The emo-pop anthem BLOODSTREAM would absolutely CRUSH IT at EuroVision and I mean that with the utmost praise and sincerity. It’s fucking rad!

With great charisma, a genre hopping sound and the vocals of Mee and Jim Shaw interlinking perfectly, there is definitely scope for Hot Milk to deliver a mega set on the Main Stage at some point – although a rammed Neu or The Axiom may suit them too.

I called it at this point, knowing there were still three full days to go and anticipating a fairly feral night’s sleep with the temperature still being in the high teens at this hour.

THURSDAY

Waking up to absolute furnace levels of heat at only 7am required an immediate exit from the tent and finding solace in the arms of a bacon roll with extra pork patty (£9.50) from Halls Dorset Smokery.

With the main arena area now fully opened, I took a tour of the various merchants offering their wares and including charities Safe Gigs for Women who work with venues, promoters, artists and gig-goers to fight sexual assault and harassment at live music events and Metal For Good who use the positive values of rock, metal and other alternative subcultures to make a positive difference in communities.

Seeing so many charities at the festival, with people donating and buying their merch, added even more to the feel-good factor on site. That being said, it was a shame the device charging function provided by a charity last year had been taken over by a company selling camping gear and some decidedly overpriced supplies (£4 for a loaf of bread…) and hopefully something the organisers reconsider next year.

Unbeknownst to me I’d set my tent up alongside a group of friends from Cambridge who turned out to be Grieving – a post hardcore quartet who only found out a few weeks prior to Trees they were playing.

On getting into The Forest for their mid-morning set there was a large gap in the middle/front of the stage which I thought was the start of a frankly terrifying looking “Wall of Death” but it was actually to avoid being stood in the intense sun which was shining down through the canopy like a sunbeam through a magnifying glass.

Frontman James Parrish, guitarist Ned Wilson Eames, bassist Jack Hurst and drummer Matt Simper hadn’t played a gig in six years prior to this slot, but the release of their debut album ‘Everything Goes Right, All At Once’ last Spring caught the bookers’ attention and they were invited along. Their half hour slot of post hardcore and emo sounds channelled the likes of American Football and Fugazi and was a perfect start to the day.

Midday on the main stage brought out Karen Dió, who proclaims herself to be ‘your favourite Brazilian punk rocker’ on her Instagram, for a set nearly as fierce as the baking sun!

Entering to the theme from Rocky, Dió overcame some technical difficulties with the click track to deliver a charismatic, energetic and downright fantastic set filled with punk rock riffs and plenty of fun. Her cover of Chappel Roan’s ‘Casual’ is better than the original and I will not be taking any questions on the matter.

Having toured with Limp Bizkit in the UK and Europe in the Spring, Dió is definitely in the ascendency and James Scarlett has tipped her to headline Trees in the future. On the evidence of this set it’ll be sooner rather than later!

Capping off the set with the certified pop-rock banger ‘Sick Ride’ the band then brought out a birthday cake for guitarist and Karen’s husband, former Dinosaur Pile-up frontman Matt Bigland, serenading him with a chorus of Happy Birthday – Parabéns from all at Summer Festival Guide!

The price of beers is always one of those hot topics at festivals, and it’s something that Trees organisers are very aware of. While they do encourage folks to buy beers where they can, they’re also okay with folks bringing their own drinks from the campsite which helps reduce costs.

What I will say though is the quality of the beers and ciders on offer is a level up from other festivals. There’s none of the “Big Beer” here – it’s independent, delicious and well worth the outlay. So, if you’re at Trees, follow the unofficial mantra “Heroes buy Beeros!” and enjoy a cold one rather than a lukewarm can of cider from your tent – you won’t regret it.

Trees also always has heaps of great food available, catering to all comers – from your omnivores, to carnivores, vegetarians, vegans and coeliacs. I visited the excellently named Beetbox for a beetroot falafel wrap (£12) which was equally excellent and enjoyed with a pint from the Arbor bar – sampling the Tree’s collaboration “Holding Out For A Beero” (£7) – a super drinkable IPA which was very popular and soon sold out.

Unpeople.’s second coming occurred on the Main Stage and there were a lot of VERY up for it fans down front and centre but as soon as the menacing riff of ‘Waste’ kicks things off that has soon spread beyond the pit and engulfed all in attendance. The lyrics “Give the people what they want, no question” seems to be something Unpeople. take very much to heart.

Crowd surfers were flung gleefully into the air and over the barrier as the rockers delivered a half hour set filled with heavy numbers with hook riddled choruses. This included the monumental sing-along set closer ‘The Garden’ which the crowd chanted along to with fervour – possibly worried the heat would render them incapacitated for the rest of the day and wanting to give it their all.

The heat by this point was kicking the ever-loving heck out of me, so I had a lie down besides a big old tree to listen to Snayx during their slot. Having been forced to cancel their show last year, it was a strong return for the band and their riotous set complete with huge cover of The Prodigy’s ‘Breathe’ was worth the wait alone.

Dragging myself to my feet via a strategically positioned I rose to my feet for The Hunna’s set. Frontman Ryan Potter has mighty lungs on him, both in terms of his vocal range and the energetic performance levels. They debuted new single ‘Hide & Seek’ along with some more familiar tracks including the radio-friendly singalong ‘Bonfire’ and it was

Flagging like an overenthusiastic Sea Scout I headed into the welcoming, shaded embrace of the Forest for one of the unexpected highlights of the weekend.

Battlesnake walked out to monastic chanting wearing white bedazzled robes and with singer Sam Frank bedecked in a hood with golden horns. While I may have been hallucinating, something seemed different about this Aussie troupe, and when Frank began his satanic spoken-word intro and one of the THREE guitarists lifted their Flying-V, I knew it was about to get heavy as fuck!

Their most recent album’s name is ‘Dawn of the Exultants and the Hunt for the Shepherd’ and the theatricality doesn’t stop with their naming of records. Ending each song with “Thank you we are Battlesnake!” the Sydney rockers led a crowd frothing at the gills in cult-like chants of “Murder, Murder” during ‘Murder Machine’ and giving us all the pageantry you’d expect from a 70’s metal band.

During the monstrous ‘Sanctum Robotos’ it is possible Frank was briefly possessed by the gods of rock, a suspicion confirmed once he stuck his tongue out and started shaking his golden horns at the front row before he and the rest of the band flung themselves into the crowd for a mass crowd surfing.

The set finished with the guitarist clambering onto the bassist’s shoulders to be carried aloft around the Forest while Frank stripped to his budgy smugglers and writhed around on the floor.

For the whole 45 minutes I didn’t stop smiling, laughing and making devil horns with my hand and I wasn’t the only one! They dragged a group of sun-scorched souls from the pits of heat induced despair before condemning us en masse to the depths of a heavy metal hell, one mega-riff after another and I’ll be honest – I’m ready to join this cult.

Hoisting the bar to monumental heights, Battlesnake were going to be a tough act to follow in my eyes – and so it was on to PVRIS.

Now, it was clear there were a lot of people in the crowd who were incredibly stoked for the co-headliner’s sundown slot but there was also a sense that a lot were getting themselves positioned for Kneecap.

Frontwoman Lynn Gunn has an absolutely incredible voice, and genuine star quality, and songs like ‘Smoke’, ‘Fire’ and closers ‘My House’ and ‘GODDESS’ are cool as hell but during a sprawling set I have to be brutally honest I lost interest.

Too many of the songs felt they had another couple of gears to go through, but never really hit full speed. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, and whether it was the ‘Battlesnake effect’ I drifted toward the bar to get a drink and bag a Buffalo Chicken Burger from Chicken Shack before wandering to The Axiom for Scottish indie-rockers Twin Atlantic.

To borrow some Scots patter, the tent was absolutely hoatching with people ready to fill their boots with something of a slightly different persuasion to a lot of the guitar-based bands of the weekend.

They know how to work a room full of fans ready to get in amongst it, and their anthemic sound filled out The Axiom and beyond – which is handy considering how full the tent was.

I have a huge fondness for singers staying authentic to their geographical roots rather than wandering into a trans-Atlantic drawl – so it’s a pleasure to hear Sam McTrusty’s Glaswegian twang laced throughout their songs, whether that’s on earnest acoustic tracks like ‘Crash Land’ or the stank face conjuring ‘No Sleep’.

Closing out with ‘Heart and Soul’, an iconic track with almost 28million streams on that streaming platform, the tent empties rapidly as many head down to the main stage for Thursday’s finale with Kneecap.

It would take a frankly spectacular ability to avoid the news for you to be unaware of the three-piece from West Belfast and Derry. Before the festival there was a LOT of noise around the group, with Sharon Osborne’s comments after the band’s Coachella set putting wheels in motion for a campaign calling for festivals including Trees to remove them from the billing.

There was never any doubt Kneecap would be making their third appearance at Upcote, even if it took until just over a month prior for Trees to issue a statement confirming. This made it one of the most anticipated sets of the weekend, especially after cancellations of their scheduled performances at Radar and TRNSMT festivals.

Emerging to a sea of Ireland and Palestine flags, Celtic shirts, GAA jerseys and balaclava wearing kids, the group were ready to give the crowd what they wanted as ‘It’s Been Ages’ started a riotous set punctuated by equal parts standup comedy and political discourse from Mo Chara (Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh) and Móglaí Bap (Naoise Ó Cairealláin).

For ‘Better Way to Live’, Fontaines DC frontman Grian Chatten pops up on a video from DJ Próvaí’s (JJ Ó Dochartaigh) deck and ahead of ‘Guilty Conscience’ Mo Chara references the court case regarding alleged terror offences which takes place towards the end of August – promising a gig outside the court “It’s going to be like a criminal Live Aid!”.

The band regularly praise the festival and the audience during their performance, but I can’t help but feel there is a lot of filler in their set. That’s hardly surprising with one LP behind them and a lot of EPs, and there’s no denying the singles are massive – especially ‘H.O.O.D’ – but you have to hope there’s something in the pipeline to move them from comedy collective into mainstays on the rap scene.

New single ‘THE RECAP’ is hopefully a nod to that, and an absolutely incendiary version to (knee)cap off the night has the scorched ground shaking. It’s an exhilarating performance and the toll of “keeping her lit” sends me off to bed in the hope of a cooler night’s sleep!

FRIDAY

Temperatures did indeed drop overnight, but were soon up again and the 8am alarm of a USAF U-2 “Dragon Lady” bomber taking off from nearby RAF Fairford had cricked necks craning to the sky for a peek.

A slow start to day two began with some tasty veggie samosas from Curry Bae and built up to Aussie punk rockers Press Club on the main stage. The Melbourne natives played their first show in the UK at Cheltenham’s legendary Frog & Fiddle pub, so in some ways this felt like a bit of a home from homecoming.

Frontwoman Natalie Foster’s main character energy filled every corner of the main stage as she sprinted around, clambering down to the barrier and getting into the crowd. Their half hour set flew by as they rattled through songs from May’s ‘To All the Ones That I Love’ album and 2019’s ‘Late Teens’.

During the total bop ‘Headwreck’ Foster informs us she’ll “bring her A-game” and I can confirm she and the band duly delivered. A* from me!

In an interview ahead of Trees James Scarlett had shouted out Julia Wolf, saying: “Every so often, I book an act in a small slot, and they suddenly get much, much bigger” and that definitely seemed the case here as the Forest was absolutely rammed on arrival.

Wolf stood in a fetching yellow 2000Trees football shirt and it felt like she was drinking in this intimate stage setting, knowing in her heart that she’s going to be playing much bigger venues from here on in.

Recent single ‘Jennifer’s Body’ is dedicated to Megan Fox, star of the film of the same name, and tackles body imagery, before TikTok hit ‘My Room’ closes out a dreamy set which could have carried on for another hour as far as I was concerned.

MAJOR GRIPE ALERT! A load of people had created circles of camping chairs, taking up heaps of space. Those groups combined with a load of hammocks creating a limbo situation when trying to navigate the sloped hill to find a spot made what is ordinarily my favourite corner of the festival an absolute waking nightmare.

I get that it was hot and that area was shady but come on people!? Hopefully something is done to negate that at future Trees, because it stopped people getting in and out which isn’t particularly safe for one and is bloody irritating for another!

A late recommendation from a friend sent me across to the main stage for The Dangerous Summer, not for a talk about the merits of sunscreen and shade, but for a set filled with soaring guitars and frontman AJ Perdomo’s yearning voice.

They’ve been around for almost 20 years as a band and the nostalgic tone of ‘Where I Want To Be’ and ‘Coming Home’ evoke all those feels from a more innocent time, while ‘Fuck Them All’ triggers many clenched fists being raised to the sky. During ‘The Permanent Rain’ Perdomo hands his bass over to Ben Landford-Biss from As It Is and gets himself into the crowd to drink in some of what he has created.

As the curtain falls, AJ Perdomo shouts “We are The Motherfucking Dangerous Summer” drops his mic and leaves, job well done.

On a wander between stages I hear a bit of Delta Sleep and Trash Boat, both of which draw good crowds, but the shade is calling so it’s back under that trusty tree with a couple of pints from Arbor.

My friends are absolutely STOKED to see these cult heroes FIDLAR in their backyard and a chaotic and deeply enjoyable performance makes it easy to see why! The sunshine, surfer rock of ‘No Waves’, playschool protest of ‘Sober’ and infectious teen rebellion hooks of ‘West Coast’ bring the vibes while covers of ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Feel Good Hit of The Summer’ bring a little bit of familiarity to those not in the know.

It’s a fun-filled set and they leave telling everyone they’d been ‘Taking Back Sunday’ but they’re fooling nobody – they’re FIDLAR and they’re awesome.

Before mainstays of the scene Coheed and Cambria I get myself a portion of the frankly world beating Birria Tacos from Bristol’s Gourmet Warriors. There was a bit of a wait for them to arrive, but DAMN were they worth it…I could gleefully have eaten about twenty of them, but it was back to the main stage for Coheed’s set.

With the sun dipping down and bathing the stage in gold, Coheed and Cambria were up for this co-headliner slot.

Having already played an acoustic set during a Forest Q&A session you could be forgiven for thinking they’d be a little fatigued, but the New Yorkers absolutely work their socks off to deliver a set laced with songs from 2025 album ‘The Father of Make Believe’ but still bringing out the classics including ‘A Favor House Atlantic’,

Claudio Sanchez hasn’t lost a bit of his impressive near falsetto and as he leads the band into an encore of ‘Blood Red Summer’ the crowd tries to keep pace, straining already well used vocal cords to their limit and probably compromising a few in the process!

Then it’s time for them to leave, but not before a set and potentially world ending rendition of ‘Welcome Home’. There are certain bits of kit that a guitarist pulls out that immediately signify something awesome is about to happen (see earlier reference to Flying V’s) and a white, double-necked Gibson SG is one of them.

Wheeling the 12 stringer we’ve been left in no doubt as to Coheed’s penchant for the epic. It’s a huge set and they’ve given their all, throwing down the gauntlet to all comers. Awesome.

Frank Turner is no stranger to 2000Trees (indeed he played ‘Love, Ire & Song’ in the Forest earlier) but Million Dead broke up before the festival was born in 2005 – so when James Scarlett heard whisper that they were getting the band back together he wasted zero time in telling Frank he’d book them for the festival, forcing his hand a little in the process.

This is unbridled nostalgia and The Axiom audience is 100% here for it!

While Frank’s voice doesn’t quite hit the high notes of yore he’s not the only one – as neither does drummer Ben Dawson’s which Turner describes as “like a gerbil being murdered”. Something about “those in glass houses” springs to mind but it doesn’t take anything away from what feels like a reunion of best mates for all in a sweaty Axiom.

A frenetic ‘Smiling at Strangers on Trains’ brings things to an end, sating those in the crowd who doubted they’d ever see Million Dead back on a stage – if only due to the relentless schedule of Frank who passed the 3,000 show mark in February – and then it was time for another shot of nostalgia delivered by Taking Back Sunday.

This is the band’s only UK show of 2025 so there’s plenty of elder emos ready to let loose and when the opening to ‘A Decade Under the Influence’ kicked off the years rolled back, arms were raised and lungs started emptying into the night’s sky.

There’s been quite a few reports of poor-quality shows in recent years and frontman Adam Lazzara’s voice isn’t the finely tuned tool it once was – but having played a few festival slots in the US already earlier in the year, there was hope for a return to form.

Unfortunately, despite a set packed out with genuine emo anthems including Liar (It Takes One to Know One)’ and ‘You’re So Last Summer’ it seemed like there was some ring rustiness among the band and it felt like much of the crowd were counting down to the “big two” which, unsurprisingly came at the end of the night.

When the iconic intro to ‘Cute Without The ‘E’ (Cut From The Team)’ started the audience, including the casuals Lazzara had called out earlier, were back in the fight and by the time ‘MakeDamnSure’ came round it was like it was 2006 all over again. It was good to live out the emo dream again, and I can’t say I’d have gone to see them on tour, but the perpetual teething problems made for a bit of a disappointing headline slot.

To the uninitiated you may not know that one of the staples of Trees is the Silent Disco which is spread over multiple channels and stages and even involves live sets from bands. You can pre-order the headsets for £26 (£20 of which is refunded after the event) and then collect using a barcode or rent them on site for £28.

It’s honestly one of the best bits of the festival, and having been unable to sleep due to the sound of revellers last night I thought it was time to join in!

Tonight, Thrill Collins is playing a set in the Forest and it goes OFF! A setlist packed with pop and rock hits, as well as a UK Garage medley interspersed by the brand’s trademark witticisms got a crowd going – to the point of unexpected crowd surfing which the security guards expecting a quiet night were soon called into action!

After a couple of hours of hopping between channels and tents to find the best vibes, slinging back White Russians and having a thoroughly excellent time – I picked up a tasty mushroom and spinach pizza from Slice One for supper and finally got to bed as the temperature dropped and meant I could actually justify having brought my sleeping bag with me!

SATURDAY

A few hours later and it was back to phenomenally spicy temperatures in the tent so I covered the outside of it with emergency foil blankets in the vain hope of surviving another night.

I was definitely feeling the accumulative effects of the heat, the lack of sleep and probably some of the White Russians, so I tackled the day with a frankly glacial pace.

Philadelphia natives Catbite are the main stage’s first offering to the sun gods and it couldn’t have been a better start to the day. I genuinely believe there are few better things than ska tinged punk at a festival in the sun – it just fits!

Brittany Luna is a phenomenon of a front woman, engaging the crowd with her patter, getting them to air scratch during ‘Scratch Me Up’ and delivering a wild performance during ‘Call Your Bluff’ – but the whole band is giving it FULL BEANS up there, this despite having to fly back to the US in a couple of days and having two sets booked for the after hours sets in the campsite.

They’ll be back in the UK in the Autumn on the Common Thread tour and if they’re in your postcode you need to get some of their live performance in your life!

DaytimeTV make their Trees debut in the Neu tent and bring their own Royal Bloodiness of chonky riffs and stadium filling noise to a small space in a field in Gloucestershire. There’s definitely a radio friendly element to their sound and I would be shocked if they’re not occupying much larger stages in the future.

The only downside of being in the covered stages for these performances was the humidity in there, rivalled only by the portaloos which made a fella very pleased to have brought Immodium, despite the regular cleaning.

Saturday is traditionally fancy dress day at Trees, with the best outfits receiving a ticket to next year’s festival and this year’s theme was heroes! Despite the heat, hundreds and hundreds of attendees joined in and some of the highlights were assorted WWE legends, Postman Pat, a can of Arbor’s 2000Trees beer collab, Cadbury’s chocolates and my personal favourite Chad Kroeger and Josey Scott from the Spiderman soundtrack – complete with mini Spiderman and New York skyline.

I went back to The Forest for the first time and the shade greeted me like an old friend, as did Kevin Devine’s performance. I first heard Kevin’s music at University in 2005 when an ex introduced me to ‘Circle Gets the Square’ but had never seen him live, so this was one of the sets I most looked forward to over the weekend.

A folky set filled with the heartfelt lyrics and Kevin’s vocal range of soft and gentle to lung busting screams was just what I needed – you could say it was, devine…(sorry).

Fans sang gently along to ‘Just Stay’ with it’s “I’m okay, okay. I’m okay, okay” outro, and ‘Cotton Crush’, while Devine dedicated ‘Another Bag of Bones’ to a Free Palestine before performing an Elliot Smith cover (‘Between the Bars’) and teasing the crowd with a few intros including Mr. Jones, Enter Sandman and Smells Like Teen Spirit before announcing “Anyway, here’s Wonderwall!” and closing out his first set at Trees since 2017.

The much needed, calmer set in the shaded sanctuary of the Forest, brought me back to life and I was ready for the rest of the day via a trip to Bunnyman’s for their legendary chilli in a hollowed out bread stick. Last year I made the chronically poor decision to take on their ‘Hot As Hell’ flavour and nearly combusted – so this time I opted for 50/50 while liberally applying the free Factor 50 the stall owners kindly provided.

It was amazing and complimented a restorative cider in the sun perfectly.

Next were Vukovi but I took the opportunity to pack up my tent ahead of exiting site in the morning. I could hear them from the campsite, and they sounded brilliant from afar. I definitely regret not being in the crowd to see the iconic Mr Fridge meet his final end after years of Trees domination (RIP), but it sounds like Vukovi owned their slot and I will 100% be making an effort to see them next time around.

I dipped in to catch some of La Dispute in The Axiom and Lowlives playing Neu on the way back to the main stage for letlive.

The former had filled the tent to the rafters, with the overspill of shade seekers enjoying the show and singer Jordan Dreyer’s emotionally strained vocals, while Lowlives delivered a proper rocking set as Snatch villain Brick Top’s grimace watched over them from the kick drum.

Letlive. split in 2017 and in 2024 announced a remaster of ‘The Blackest Beautiful’ as well as details of their farewell tour – including a stop at 2000Trees – which was music to the ears of many who thought that was that.

While this performance may be goodbye, there’s nothing Irish about – they are going HARD AS up there! Frontman Jason Aalon Butler’s voice is monumental and the band are rocking out to the fullest as the crowd bays for more.

He uses his platform to talk about the band, to thank the crowd and touches on his own challenges with his mental health and anger which he’s worked on with therapy (it’s cool to talk about how you feel, folks).

That anger is put to good use during ‘Good Mourning, America’ which feels as relevant now as it ever has against the political backdrop in the USA and beyond as does the fury laden ‘The Sick, Sick, 6.8 Billion’.

It’s both a vitriolic and reflective performance and he dedicates ‘Muther’ to the women in the crowd proclaiming to the men in the audience “Women don’t need your help, they need your respect and the courtesy they deserve!” while also informing them he’ll gladly mete out a beating if they don’t heed his call. But he’s also in a playful mood, gently chiding a fan Charlotte who saw him and said she’d had a dream he gave her a shoutout only for her to not be there (she was, she was just away from her friends) before getting her on stage – along with the Marshall amp mascot who dutifully kneels down to take their space on the stage as Butler warns him: “Remember how I used to break amps on stage? Your times up motherfuckah!”

On that, Butler is proving an absolute nightmare for the stage crew with his running around, throwing mics, dragging the drum kit along the stage, jumping down to the barrier and dragging leads across monitors – and that’s the tip of the iceberg!

During ‘27 Club’ he’s down to his underwear and scaling the stage up to the light scaffolding, causing more than a few sharp intakes of breath and worry we’re about to see a major spill – but thankfully he makes it back down safely, albeit leaving his microphone dangling (not a euphemism).

It was one of the sets of the weekend and cued the hunger pangs, so Pad Thai and Spring Rolls from…well, Pad Thai…were on the menu before the final headliners of the weekend, Alexisonfire.

Now, I have to confess I never had an Alexisonfire phase (I know, I know – it isn’t a phase…) but this was one the elder emos in the crowd were absolutely bouncing in their Posturepedic Vans for.

Entering to the theme tune from The Last of the Mohicans they salute the crowd, thanking them for “sticking with us all these years” and as soon as ‘Accidents’ kicks in there is a massive release of pent-up energy and by the time the singalong “woah, woah, woah” comes in we’re at escape velocity and being carried by the momentum.

You can tell they’ve been touring their arses off this last year, as the band don’t miss a step – a far cry from last night’s headliners! But they’re also clearly having a blast up there.

At one point George Pettitt ends up crowd surfing and sitting on an inflatable armchair as the adoring crowd carry him aloft in between slinging themselves over the barrier.

Before the encore the band leads a singalong to a huge ‘This Could Be Anywhere In The World’ returning for a somehow even louder sounding ‘Young Cardinals’ and shutting it down with ‘Happiness By The Kilowatt’ which bleeds into Neil Young’s ‘Hey Hey, My My’ leaving the last shreds of the chainmail sporting Wade MacNeil’s voice hanging by a thread.

The band leave the stage to rapturous applause with the crowd’s beaming faces slowly moving away from the stage into the night – hearts filled by an astonishing headline set. Alexisonfire wasn’t a band I listened to back in the day, but fair play they absolutely delivered the perfect closer to the main stage action and one of those legendary performances folk will talk about for years to come.

I finally made my way into the campsite for one of the highlights of the weekend, a series of afterhours sets from musicians across several stages set out along the main route through the campsite.

Last year there were a few grumbles about the congestion caused by these shows, with folks crammed between tents, standing on guy ropes and blocking the pathway. This year the set-up crew had created a more formalised space for each of these, Camp Turner in particular, which solved the problem.

Bouncing between stages I managed to catch two sets from Catbite (Camp Turner and UTB Manchester) with an acoustic set including mouth trombone and slick harmonies and cover of Amy Winehouse’s ‘Valerie’ and their own bangers ‘Die in Denver’ and ‘Excuse Me Miss’ among others. I also saw Olivia Rose (Camp Turner) who jumped in to save the day for Catbite with a Capo ahead of her own slot, before moving on to Cheltenham locals Truck (Camp Frabbit) who’s singer Jamie had managed to shred his vocal cords screaming along during the weekend but still delivered a fun set including the excellent single ‘Spit It Out’.

A last flick between Silent Disco channels and a hotdog with fries from Piggie Smalls later and it was time for bed – with the only disappointment from the day being the lack of appearance from last year’s Saturday night headliners…No, not Don Broco…The Cockchafers! I say disappointment, those winged behemoths caused chaos last time round so it was quite nice to wee in peace!

SUNDAY

The usual challenges of 15,000 people leaving site via a tiny B road occurred on exit, compounded somewhat by a local highways operative directing traffic from the junction and the Big Green Bus coaches squeezing their way down the lane – but it wasn’t too long before I was home and checking out the gnarly tanlines from my wristband.

As sunkissed/ravaged revellers made their way from the dustbowl site and back to reality, it’s worth a pause to reflect and thank everyone involved in 2000 Trees. From the organisers to all the staff and volunteers who put this beaut of a festival on for us.

The heat was unrelenting all weekend and they stood firm, smiling and bringing the vibes that help to make this festival what it is.

A word on those vibes too. Many first timers I spoke to commented on this intangible quality, some having abandoned small festivals that grew exponentially and sold out to the corporations years ago – ruining that community feel you get at those festivals and that community is so powerful at Trees.

2000Trees maintains its fierce independence and has done since 2007 and in my opinion is all the better for it. Considering the economic challenges faced by so many and with 204 UK festivals closing altogether since 2019, it is testament to the powers that be at 2000Trees that they’ve resisted the lure of corporate dollar – with only Marshall Amps really having any overt presence there as a partner.

Glastonbury’s fallow year in 2026 provides an opportunity for the mid-sized festivals to hoover up new fans and convert them into lifers. With discounted early bird ticket packages available and instalment plans available for next year, regulars already committing and festival director James Scarlett’s knack for picking a belter of a lineup, I’d wager it won’t be long before the best kept secret on the UK festival scene is anything but secret.

2000Trees 2026 takes place from Thursday 9^th to Saturday 11^th July, so get it in the diary and I’ll see you at the Silent Disco!

Download Festival – 20th Anniversary GIANT REVIEW!

June 16, 2023 by Anna Hyams

It’s June, we are out of the grey days and on the cusp of summer, there is hope in the breeze. Donington Park, home to superbikes and souped up engines is about to be clad in all black everything – for the unstoppable force that is Download Festival. In it’s 20^th Anniversary year, hitting a sold out 100k audience is the cherry on the cake of Donington history. Praise be to the old guard of Monsters of Rock for handing down these fields of joy, so we can continue to celebrate.

WEDNESDAY

As part of the bigger/better anniversary wealth, Download has this year included an additional full day of music to the line-up – meaning that campers can arrive from Wednesday instead. In previous years, there seemed to be a greater split of arrival times and days for those camping but this year… it’s like the Pied Piper of metal suddenly called every alt kid in the UK at once, and everything in a five mile area is a fucking mess.

Now we know the road infrastructure around Donington Park isn’t the best, and we know it’s also competing with East Midlands Airport along one side, but this is another level of shithousery – the abject worst queues in the festival’s history. Reports coming in of people queuing for over seven hours in hot cars and buses, carparks being full and closed early on, signage being scrubbed out instead of redirected… the list goes on.

Many people took to Instagram to contact the festival directly and voice their complaints; @morrighan writes “Please sort out whatever the heck is holding up the J24 exit! We followed advice to follow signs for the fastest route. Taken us 3 hours to move less than a mile!” with @not_my_pubs_name replying “same, got on m1 exit slip road j23a and been sat here 3 hrs so far, and I’m camping in quiet camp, but now West carpark is full, so double fucked off. Utter joke”.

Essex tattoo artist @lucyharmless was also caught in the melee “wanna tell me why I’ve been sat in the same spot for the last 5+ hours, I know it’s a sold out festival but we’re not even moving here”

The festival has made no response about why things were this bad, instead posting the same information about which junctions to enter the festival by for the following days. Though the problem wasn’t as pronounced over the rest of the weekend, there were still significant delays with no real explanation.

As a 20 year fan of this festival (yes, I’ve been to them all) I would love to only sing it’s praises, but this is something that surely must be addressed for next year’s event. There has to be a way to separate and space out arrivals, maybe something in booked time slots for coming in (whilst this may sound a little prescriptive, but both Bestival and the IOW festival essentially had this work with ferry bookings splitting up the entry) or linking booked parking to campsite locations so that you can only go to one specific area. Hopefully better brains than mine are considering the future implications of the festival’s size.

THURSDAY

For ourselves, entering on Thursday was indeed an unfortunate three hour queue situation to hit the West car park which is closest to the box office we needed to be at for our wristbands. Luckily we had packed drinks and snacks knowing the stakes from the day before. Though we missed a few choice early bands due to this, entering the arena again felt like coming home. There is something undeniable about the feeling of stepping through the portal of Download. One minute you’re in the regular world where people look at you funny, and the next you’re side by side with every other person who knows exactly what it’s like to be fringe, or other.

The arena itself has had an overhaul, and I really think it is (mostly) for the better. The fairground rides have been summarily booted to the Avalanche stage area, which is a brilliant move. Their ridiculously loud playlists are no longer sullying the Apex stage sound, and they don’t hinder Avalanche at all because it’s a closed in tent – perfect. Gone too is the traditional line of food outlets that broke up that area, and the accessible viewing platform has had a move too. The result is an absolutely gargantuan main stage area with incredible views from all angles, further helped by the enormous screen towers and stack amps that are supposedly only in place for Metallica. Honestly – I wish they would keep them, the sound and views have been bloody incredible due to this set up.

I will pause to note though, that the accessible platform has been moved to the other side of the arena, presumably to facilitate quicker movement between the stages, especially Opus and Apex. Whilst this is in theory a great idea – the route between the platforms has been sandwiched in probably the most notorious bottleneck of the whole festival, rendering it completely unpassable during high crowd sets, simply because people are stopping in those areas to watch too. I’m not sure what could be done about this, it makes the most sense to have moved the platform there, but some kind of access run-through between them perhaps?

Anyway, onto the music. Having performed an incredible set last year at Bloodstock, it is so good to see Ukrainian band Jinjer absolutely smashing their way onto the Download main stage to a very respectable crowd. Lead vocalist Tatiana Shmayluk is an absolute powerhouse, song ‘Teacher Teacher’ hits hard even in the baking sun. It’s clear the crowd is on side as the band talk about what is happening in their country, by beginning a “Fuck Putin” chant, under the screened Ukrainian flags. I’d call their set a complete triumph, especially for a band that has jumped from performing in The Dogtooth at Download 2019 to the main stage in 2023.

Hundred Reasons ‘I’ll Find You’ will forever be one of my favourite jams, but it is beyond horrendous trying to move around the Opus stage at this point – there are simply too many people for comfort, so we stand off to the side for it and then scarper in search of space to sit down.

Over on The Avalanche stage we caught Punk Rock Factory, a Welsh four-piece doing what absolutely everyone wants to hear – theme songs and Disney covers. I’m not even slightly joking, the tent is packed and there are crowd surfers galore. No-one is pretending to be too cool to sing along with the likes of Go Go Power Rangers (replete with actual Power Rangers standing ominously still at the front of the stage), the Pokemon theme tune is excellent, as is Under The Sea from The Little Mermaid. Truly this band are a highlight, if only for the nostalgia button they press in all of us.

Punk Rock Factory © Anna Hyams Wade for Summer Festival Guide – do not use without permission

Halestorm are predictably awesome, and I mean that in the full sense of the word. Lzzy Hale belts out notes like she doesn’t even need a mic, an absolute rock icon. ‘I Miss The Misery’ is always going to be the big fan fave but truly the whole set was just good clean rock and roll in the sunshine. There’s something to be said for a band that sits so comfortably in this classic sound and owns it – there’s actually not a lot of it on the bill this weekend.

After grabbing a horrendously overpriced slushie (cozzie livs is really showing up in the food and beverage prices this weekend, let me tell you) we thought we’d check out the merchandise selections, but immediately turned on our heels when we discovered that they were over an hour long wait. No thanks.

I’m fairly sure that every single year I’ve complained about merch queues but, this festival is so big now it’s really time to add another one to the main arena. Way back in the Opus corner maybe? Heck stick one in VIP so that an entire population of people can grab their stuff outside of the arena as well? The addition of one to the West carpark exit/village entrance was great, but there were a few teething problems with the new ‘Megastore’ too.

Now, I love an obscure item as much as the next person (I do really want the Download bedsheets) and think this was a great idea… but I don’t know if sticking the Megastore out of reach for day/weekend ticketholders was necessarily fair. Particularly when it contained special tshirts not on sale in the arena stores – nor indeed the ENTIRE Mary Wyatt collection which been so hyped on social media prior to the event. More than a few disgruntled fans flocked to the Mary Wyatt Instagram to express their disappointment at not being able to grab something. The merch itself was interesting this year, I especially enjoyed the retro 03-23 logo tee and the back patch 20 jacket, but ooft the prices really do keep on rising.

Over on Apex, Alter Bridge bring us another dose of classic rock with Myles Kennedy’s signature vocal sound soaring over the sun-soaked crowd, while New York pop punk quartet State Champs light up the Avalanche stage for a rowdy but fun show – the whole tent is dancing.

State Champs © Anna Hyams Wade for Summer Festival Guide – do not use without permission

There is one band that I categorically want to see playing somewhere EVERY year please-thanks, and that is our Welsh pals, Skindred. As far as I’m concerned they are the sound of the summer, and my season isn’t over if I don’t do the Newport Helicopter at least once. Pulled in to fill the 5FDP void, there could be no more perfect choice than having Benji & co. headline the Opus stage – and what a rowdy good time it was. Every damn song they do is catchy, upbeat and just generally inspires movement… so you can imagine how intensely difficult it was to acquiesce to this innate demand when ALL 100K FESTIVAL GOERS were also trying to occupy that space. Coming off the back of a Heavy Music Award win there’s absolutely no doubting they’re fully at the top of their game, and are beloved at Download.

I’m going to attempt to keep this brief, since the greedy barstewards are playing twice this weekend, but it’s time for the first Metallica roundup.

As the sound of AC/DC’s ‘It’s A Long Way To The Top’ starts up by way of intro, old photos of the band surrounded by neon yellow frames (the official colour scheme of this tour ‘72 Seasons’) splash over the backdrops and the new cylindrical screen towers, including two monster cylinders actually on the stage itself. It’s an undeniably massive set-up, but there is a bit of me that is wondering if it’s going to be all style over substance.

On a personal note, Metallica have been there from the very beginning for me. I was there at the first Download, squished into a tent for their not-so-secret set… I was there when Joey Jordison filled in for Lars… I was there when they played the whole of The Black Album… they’re woven into the fabric of this festival and my festival history. One particular memory I carry from all of these times, is seeing hundreds of lights glowing in the dark of the night for ‘Nothing Else Matters’. The only difference is, the first time I saw them it was a warm orange glow from thousands of flame lighters – tonight, the cool white of phone torches. It’s strange to think how the next generation’s memories of live music will be formed.

Highlights of course included ‘Fade to Black’ in which Lars actually savaged a snare drum which had to be quickly replaced, ‘Sad but True’ and ‘Seek and Destroy’ (have we noticed how much Metallica love 3 word names for their songs?).

That said, this isn’t by any means my favourite set I’ve seen from Metallica. Yes the sound quality is excellent, and I’m never not going to enjoy ‘Master of Puppets’ and ‘Fuel’ but it feels a bit like they’re conserving energy for Saturday if I’m honest. Lars predictably spends some time at the end waxing lyrical about their Donington origins in 1985 “…you guys have that saying, ‘home turf’… I think this might be Metallica’s home turf” but, I think it would have been a bit nicer and more topical to have talked about their Download history in particular… it’s only the bloody anniversary event isn’t it.

FRIDAY

Today we’re already fearing the heat and slathering ourselves in sun-cream, but off we merrily pop to the Opus stage for The Warning. “We are 3 sisters from Mexico” they yell, before absolutely crushing their punchy hard rock set. From humble beginnings as kids on YouTube covering Enter Sandman, to a huge audience at Download is pretty damn impressive if you ask me.

In a swift change of pace, we catch up with our friends-from-another-field – Elvana. Usually seen in glitter and sequins at the likes of Camp Bestival, they’ve chameleon morphed into… well, something else. Resplendent in black skeleton Elvis-style jumpsuit and suits, the band (and their doom cheerleaders aka backup vocalists) bring something a little silly but ultimately very enjoyable to the Download palette. Who doesn’t want an unhinged circle pit to Blue Suede Shoes, and have lil mosh to Smells Like Teen Spirit? Jokes aside, they’re actually excellent as well as fun, what’s not to love.

Heading across site we spot a lot of little Battle Jackets this year. Seems that a few more people have braved bringing their kids along and it feels like a nice shift for the festival. Yeah you can whinge on about it being ‘for adults’ but, there’s something to be said for passing on the spirit of metal to the next gen in a way that feels genuine and community led, and metal Mums and Dads just wanna see live music too, so bore off.

Witch fever over on the Dogtooth stage are another example of excellent up-and-coming bands we’ve been treated to this weekend. It’s been really fun to have some new blood turnover in the smaller stages and they certainly came seeking violence with their heady mix of post-punk power over gloomy basslines. Riot grrl era is back on the menu, and they are leading the call in all the ways we want – including jumping into the crowd and getting rowdy. If they started a zine I would buy it. Top song for my choosing: ‘Bully Boy’, oh and did I mention – they’re all hot.

Heading down the hill to the Apex, we are greeted by the incredible Nova twins, a punk/grime influenced duo from London. Now this for me is a truly excellent booking, their sound is unique and interesting, they absolutely wail and have that unmistakable star quality that we need for the main stage. Next up, Hot Milk are in danger of becoming Curdled Milk (snickers uncontrollably) and suffer a bit from the crowd being well… too hot. I have no idea how they survived on-stage pyro in this heat but more power to them, because I am melting.

Epica are first up in the melodic/symphonic metal stakes today and lead vocalist Simone Simons has one of those voices that has the power to skewer you right through the soul. It’s a decent crowd already, and I fear for being able to get round there later on.

Neck deep aren’t usually my scene but they’re doing a good job of hyping up the crowd, and it’s nice to see what Wrexham has to offer besides football and American celebrities. However, they do indeed sound extremely American when they sing – such is the power of the pop-punk cadence. “Everyone who’s from a shithole town, yell if you’re proud of where you came from!” elicits a huge roar, but the thing is, everyone in the UK thinks they’re from a shithole town until someone else bags on it, then the gloves are off. Aaanyway, Brutus are another new-to-me band who absolutely ripped up the Dogtooth stage, I am always floored by drummers who are also vocalists, the level of coordination is baffling to me.

As expected Pendulum are fucking incredible and have wisely chosen to beef up the heaviness of their set – as they did last time they played Download. It’s a welcome return and everyone is up dancing about for it, despite the heat. “Front to the back, I need to see you crazy fuckers” is the call to arms for ‘Propane Nightmares’, and it’s quite cool that they’re joined by Matthew Tuck (of Bullet fame) for ‘Halo’, but ‘Witchcraft’ is the ultimate Pendulum masterpiece in my opinion.

Unfortunately due to some costumes not arriving in time, Gwar have to pull out of todays performance, which is met with a huge groan from the crowd inside the Dogtooth. So we head over to Within Temptation to be summarily met by a wall of people right up to the pathway. There is no chance of getting through, so we catch a bit of Sharon Den Adel’s deep and spooky vocals, as the second symphonic band to hit the stage today. Sometimes I forget how much ‘Stand My Ground’ slaps live – do these women even need microphones really? It feels like she could go without and still be heard at the Apex stage.

Architects are inducting newbies to the fray “…how many of you have crowd surfed before? Now’s your chance, get over this fucking barrier!” via some rather nice blokes who are giving people boosts into the waiting arms of obliging pallbearer types. But we’re hanging back to see Evanescence complete the trifecta of big vox, gothic female fronted bands today. As suspected – we can’t get anywhere near and the sound is totally borked from the side to the point of not really being able to hear. Sad times but I think the Opus field just no longer has the capacity.

Luckily the beyond brilliant Carpenter Brut who I’ve been listening to on repeat for the last 2 months, is giving the packed out Dogtooth something resembling a rave but considerably wilder. Apparently we’re calling this darksynth, but all I know is it’s fucking FUN. Sadly there are no tshirts to be found at the merch tents, otherwise I’d have snapped one up, call me a new fan – especially of his cover of Michael Sembello’s Flashdance hit ‘Maniac’– I command you to listen to it immediately.

Bringing Friday to a close are the much anticipated Bring Me The Horizon with an incredible stage set comprising of lots of bridge levels wrapped across a giant screen backdrop, like something out of a musical. Hitting the stage in a crop top with bondage straps and a shaggy haircut, Oli Sykes hasn’t morphed too far from the early scene kid days, but he definitely looks like a headliner now. It’s hard to describe but from minute one I was absolutely convinced they were meant to be there, and I genuinely felt excited to be seeing Download making a clear choice for the future of the festival here.

The band unceremoniously rip through the likes of ‘Teardrops’ and ‘Mantra’, before introducing “…one of [their] favourite bands in the fucking world…” Nova Twins, to head up ‘1×1’ with them. There is no denying the set is special, it’s got pizazz, the band sound incredible and they’re doing things that make it a unique show. This is what I wanted Metallica to do yesterday, to be honest.

Yes they’re a funny mix of genres at times, but this does actually allow them to be more flexible in their set too, something not a lot of bands can bring to the big stage – but there’s nothing that will keep a classic emo down is there… “Sometimes you get sad, but it’s about realising it and sharing it. If I’ve gotta be lost, I’m glad I’m lost with you people”. Oh Oli, wipe your tears babe, here comes Amy Lee (of Evanescence) – joining them for hands down the MOST emo named song in the history of songs ‘One Day the Only Butterflies Left Will Be in Your Chest as You March Towards Your Death’. It’s pretty great actually, and at least I can finally hear Amy Lee.

I could live without the face melting pyrotechnics to be honest, it’s still so hot tonight – and we were two speaker sets back so you know the people in front were basically cooked like turkeys. There’s a bit of me that wishes the tired suicidal ideation bit (‘DiE4u’) didn’t have to start with spoken word that sounds mystically beautiful to morose teenagers but ah, that’s the therapist in me speaking I suppose. Many have sung worse things I know, but it isn’t my favourite. Despite this, and the sort of strange cyber-attack/AI bit they keep playing on the screens, the band absolutely smash the shit out of this headline show. Yelling “I don’t care what you do, but if you stand still you are… a very special kind of knobhead” actually does appeal to my wish to not be seen as a knobhead, so I join in with everyone else because he told me to. If that isn’t the power of a headline act I don’t know what is.

‘Follow You’ is a lovely musical interlude, in which Oli requests people get on each others’ shoulders and hold up their lighters/phones “I’ll take owt”, and then runs down to hug the front row of fans. It’s a little cultish, but aren’t all the best bands?

With a giant explosion of pink ticker-tape and a nod “I will never forget this moment” they go out on the impeccable trio of ‘Drown’, ‘Throne’ and ‘Can You Feel My Heart’. Sign me up, I’m part of the cult now.

SATURDAY

Up and at ‘em for Polaris, who are very shouty and loud. I’m surprised at how many people are already going hard at midday considering we’re already edging on Satan’s armpit level heat.

I’m off to buy an overpriced slushie and head towards Avalanche for Lake Malice, who are going down as one of my favourite hits of the weekend. Vocalist Alice Guala looks like she’s jumped right off The Grid, wearing some kind of lycra Tron onesie and guitarist Blake Cornwall is rocking the coolest leopard print guitar I’ve ever seen. They’ve got an almost nu-metal edge, which appeals to my younger self, incredible energy and their crowd is responding with sending heaps of surfers across the barrier, despite the fact that the tent is stiflingly hot at this point. It sort of grieves me to know that this band started over Facebook during lockdown, and now they’re here. I was just out there making banana bread and doing my silly little zoom quizzes… how ‘bout you?

First hype pick of the day for me are the deliciously kitschy Ice Nine Kills. I’d say the Venn diagram of metal fans and horror fans is probably almost a circle, and I cannot pretend that I’m not a basic bitch. With all their songs themed to horror movies, a good dose of on-stage theatricals (knives, axes, Patrick Bateman getup, you know – the full Alice Cooper style schtick) and catchy lyrics, I don’t think I’m alone in thoroughly loving this set. ‘The American Nightmare’ has been one of my most played songs since their second stage performance at Download last year – get on it.

In a whiplash change of pace, it’s time for the mighty Clutch. They are the antithesis of the previous band, no frills… no stuff… no theatrics. They just do what they always do – play solid funky rock and roll, brilliantly. The blazing sunshine with a cold beer is in my opinion, the most appropriate setting to see the likes of ‘X-Ray Visions’ and ‘Electric Worry’. Neil Fallon quips “hey shall we take our shirts off and pretend we’re in Red Hot Chilli Peppers?” as the heat gets to him, and they go out on the excellent ‘Pure Rock Fury’. I could stand a couple more hours of Clutch in the sunshine to be honest, let the music play.

A quick trip into the Dogtooth for the weird and wonderful Bambie Thug does not disappoint. They are dressed in some sort of Alien-meets-Hela demonic playsuit thing which is very fun, and are flanked by two gyrating dancers wearing only boxers – who later water gun the crowd (which is actually rather thoughtful of them in this heat). ‘Kawasaki (I Love It)’ is very singable, and ‘Headbang’ with special guest Mimi Barks feels a bit on the nose but ultimately is just really enjoyable. Bambie is going straight on the summer playlist.

Alexisonfire are yelling about something “Fuck racism, fuck misogyny, fuck you” but I’m too hot to do anything from my position on the ground under a sun-brella. They’re not usually my jam but it is frankly not in the cards for me to move right now so I accept a bit of shouty ‘Accept Crime’ and ‘Boiled Frogs’ under an oppressively cloudless sky.

Dragging myself into the Avalanche for Gwar’s rescheduled set is a feat in itself, but I am rewarded with the sight of a half naked King Charles, Kim Jong Un getting scalped and Putin with no hands. Unfortunately this also means I joined the masses of [fake]blood-soaked bodies in an already sweaty tent, and let me tell you that stuff does not easily wash off. You can’t not like Gwar, they’re so silly, it’s the law.

After attempting to clean myself up, it’s over to see Disturbed’s inevitable but iconic rendition of ‘The Sound of Silence’, which to my amusement – a group of guys in front of us all had a tearful cuddle afterwards, adorable.

The Opus area is of course way overfull once again, but there is nothing stopping Placebo being just fucking incredible from wherever you were standing. ‘Nancy Boy’ and ‘Bitter End’ are the sounds of my angry youth and I am transported back to a point where I actually had time to sit and listen to songs without it just being in the back of housework or my job. Their cover of ‘Running Up That Hill’ might be a lot of people’s introduction to Placebo, via Stranger Things, but for me they are tickling my nostalgia navel and I am gutted they weren’t put on the main stage instead.

Metallica, night two. This is the set I was waiting for. Yes we had the exact same intro but the band absolutely enter the stage with more presence and purpose tonight than they did on Thursday. The crowd tonight is absolutely wild to look out on. This is the most open the arena has ever been, without all the foot outlets and such chopping the area up it looks incredible, an absolute sea of bodies bathed under the stage lights. There’s something quite eerie about being in the company of 100k people like this, and the deafening roar of those people singing along to ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ immediately goes into the core memory bank.

“Let’s see if you guys know this song… wait let’s see if we know this song” jokes James Hetfield (Papa Het? Is that what we’re calling him these days? Bit weird but ok) as they drop into ‘Until It Sleeps’, but ‘Welcome Home (Sanitarium)’ is just gorgeously melodic and dramatic in the darkness.

Then there’s a weird interlude where Lars Ulrich seems to try and bring an extremely terrified child on stage from the Snakepit, who absolutely has zero interest in being there and therefore cries his eyes out. Luckily Hetfield is on hand to diffuse the situation “Here’s my dad joke… the fans at download are in-tents. You give me a microphone and I don’t know what to do!”. ‘The Unforgiven’ is wildly good, like seared-into-my-minds-eye good – it truly is one of the best performances I’ve seen Metallica give, and I enjoy the mild ribbing they’re giving Lars to boot. “This is night 10 for us here at Download or Monsters of Rock, that’s fabulous. Well, it’s Lars’ 9th show, you gonna catch up with us one day? He’ll be here tomorrow playing with all the other bands” Hetfield jokes, as people around us shout back “please no” and “don’t encourage him”.

‘Whiskey In The Jar’ never fails to get everyone singing along, the on-stage pyro and offset flame canons are massive, closing out with ‘One’ and ‘Enter Sandman’ and shitload of fireworks – this is the epic headline set we needed.

SUNDAY

Day four of blistering heat is a struggle, not gonna lie. We are done in but soldier on into the arena once more for Bloodywood – now with quite the following, the unique New Delhi bhangra heavy metal sound is exactly the kind of newness I love to see, being played to a pretty huge audience. Graphic Nature in the dogtooth are somehow, and for no discernible reason, doing their entire set wearing hood-up raincoats in this heat – but they do look like they’re having fun.

Lorna Shore probably don’t quite get the reception they deserve as the order of the afternoon seems to be Lorna Snore, as many people appear to tapped out taking a nap in the field. Next up Mongolian metalheads The Hu are plying us with more tasty unique sounds, very enjoyable but I do wish that their stringed instruments had been been levelled up a bit, as that aspect which is prevalent in their online catalogue was kinda missing. Their cover of Metallica’s ‘Sad But True’ with half Mongolian lyrics, is fantastic though.

We head over to the Opus stage for a bit of Avatar who I can only think must be boiling alive in all their leather, especially with all their coordinated circular headbanging segments. ‘The Dirt I’m Buried In’ and ‘Hail The Apocalypse’ are highlights but honestly they’re just so entertaining start to finish – I wish they’d been a main stage band too.

Behemoth look as uncomfortably hot as they did last year at the burning inferno that was Bloodstock Open Air, asking “We need your energy, we need you to jump” to a day 4 crowd who are dead on their feet and basically crisp. It’s a no from me friends, but there are plenty of people down there having their time of their lives still so it’s all good.

I prevail are doing a lot of screaming and yelling fuck, in an angry teenage way, and whilst it isn’t really my vibe, their cover of SOAD’s ‘Chop Suey’ is actually great, and they do manage to provoke some very respectable and dusty circle pits.

On the Opus stage Bad Religion are playing an absolute blinder of a set, just solid good punk rock – the sound of my college years. The likes of ‘Anaesthesia’ and ‘You’ are required Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater history of course, and ‘Infected’ results in a massive singalong. Over in Avalanche, German electronic wizards Electric Callboy are ripping Download a new one. This is the most packed and writhing I’ve seen the tent this weekend, the electric energy is undeniable. ‘Hypa Hypa’ is probably the most well known of theirs, but I also loved their cover of Darude’s ‘Sandstorm’ and The Frozen/Backstreet Boys ‘Let It Go’/‘I Want It That Way’ sweaty metalhead singalong was very funny to watch.

Scooting back through the gap to Opus we’re ready for some retro 80’s style metal from our favourite Swedish ghouls Ghost. This iteration of Papa Emeritus comes with much less pomp and ceremony, and I’m here for it. ‘Rats’ makes me giggle every time, it’s great used as a response to pretty much anything someone can ask you over the course of a weekend – but not if you want to keep your friends, let me tell you.

Dressed as a bat, Papa sings “I can feel the thunder that’s breaking in your heart” from ‘Cirice’ at almost the precise moment we start to witness lightning flashes in the sky above them. Very forward thinking of them to order the weather honestly. Luckily the festival skirts the zone between two massive thunderstorms in the Midlands, and is mercifully spared the Drownload moniker for another year.

Yelling “Do you want a goodnight kiss? How you doing Donington”, they launch forth into the epic and choral ‘Mary On A Cross’, a ticker tape and firework explosion, finishing up with ‘Dance Macabre’ and ‘Square Hammer’. This was truly the best Ghost performance I’ve seen, it looks like they’ve settled into their zone without some of the theatrical elements that I thought held them back a bit last time, and let the music speak.

Trying to get back to the main stage for our final headliner Slipknot, was like some kind of hideous cross country trek through sticky stinky bodies shoulder-to-shoulder. The traffic around the site this year has been noticeably worse due in part to numbers but also perhaps a few layout changes that have made routes through somewhat smaller. Slipknot arrive to giant bursts of smoke from all of the speaker towers in the crowds, and the cylindrical screens are focusing on up-close band members which is actually really effective. It’s also good to see the Clown return to the stage after a hiatus, atop one of the giant spiked drum tower flanking each side of the stage.

There’s no denying that it’s an impressive set up, and the band come in with a solid twenty minutes of pure heavy rage, eventually Corey yells “It’s good to be home” followed by “I’m a bit mad at you, you made me lose a bet. They bet me you would still go as mad without me running my mouth for the first twenty minutes. There were circle pits, I lost twenty quid you fuckin pricks” before admitting that he has been ill and that his voice isn’t up to par at the moment. Unfortunately it’s really obvious that he’s struggling through the set and it makes a marked difference in the power and delivery of the songs. “Well I always sound like shit, but I don’t always sound this cool” he jokes.

A collective ooooh emanates from the crowd as he shouts “Download! Our family. Here are some songs we haven’t played in a very fucking long time…” as they launch into a tour debut of ‘Left Behind’.

“This one goes out to Kerrang magazine… Let’s see what you do with this one folks…” is the precursor to another exciting inclusion ‘Snuff’ which again has Slipknot fans cooing.

The obvious run down towards the end of ‘People = Shit’ and ‘Surfacing’ followed by an encore of ‘Duality’, ‘Custer’ and ‘Spit It Out’ is a predictable but, what the people want. The execution is phenomenal and exactly what you expect of a headliner but… it’s still not the best we’ve seen them I fear. There’s something lacking in the vibrancy, and sure some of it is Corey’s voice – but I do wonder whether the passion is in it for them as a band anymore. It’s hard not to make a comparison to Friday’s Bring Me The Horizon headline set, where the air was absolutely electric, and I say this as a person who isn’t (or wasn’t) a particular fan of either band. The tides are a’changing at Download festival, and I’m excited to see where we are headed, but it might mean leaving some beloved people behind.

Download, you’ve been epic once again – may your next 20 years be as wild!

DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES NEXT ACTS FOR 2018

June 10, 2020December 20, 2017 by Anna Hyams

Download Festival, the world’s premier rock event, has announced some of the biggest rock acts in the world including Marilyn Manson, Parkway Drive, Rise Against, BODY COUNT ft. ICE T and more. The three-day festival takes place 8-10 June 2018 at the spiritual home of rock in Donington Park, Leicestershire. Tickets are on sale now at downloadfestival.co.uk/tickets.

Download is proud to welcome back the Antichrist Superstar himself Marilyn Manson, fresh off the release of critically acclaimed new album Heaven Upside Down. The goth rock veteran is more energised than ever and set to bring his renowned live show to Donington next year.

Since 2003 Aussie rock titans Parkway Drive have gone from strength-to-strength, pushing boundaries with their epic live performances. Having ascended to the forefront of modern metal with their latest critically acclaimed album Ire, their ferocious crushing breakdowns and stadium-sized choruses have them high on people’s lists for future headliner contenders.

Parkway Drive said:

“Parkway Drive are super stoked to be returning to Download for 2018. It's always a highlight for us to play Download and this time around we're aiming to top it all. We can't wait!”

British modern metal institution Bullet for My Valentine have also been confirmed to perform at Download Festival next year. The Welsh powerhouse have conquered the heights of Wembley Arena along with fellow UK torchbearers Asking Alexandria who will be taking to the stage with a hero’s return of their original infamous vocalist Danny Worsnop.

Matt Tuck of Bullet For My Valentine said:

“We're so excited to be playing next year's Download Festival!! It's been 5 long years now since we last performed at Donington Park, so we're more than ready to get back on that legendary stage and do what we do best. See you there!”

Ben Bruce of Asking Alexandria said:

“We have been waiting for half a decade to say this again, “DOWNLOAD WE ARE COMING FOR YA!”. Download festival is hands down one of the most exciting festivals in the world to play and so we have decided to bring our biggest show to date over with us. We cannot wait to see you all there. In the words of this year’s legendary headliner, Mama I’m coming home”

Pivotal punk rock heroes Rise Against will have fists thrown in the air, with their ferocious socio-political rock. Expect a high energy, kinetic performance from one of the world’s biggest authentic punk bands, who’ve proved their lasting worth to the genre. Joining the line up are LA Glam Rockers Black Veil Brides, Swedish extreme tech-metal trail blazers Meshuggah, and post hardcore legends Alexisonfire whose performance will be a long-awaited return to Download Festival.

Mind-blowing “metal phenomenon on a mission” BABYMETAL are confirmed to make their second official Download performance. This UK exclusive appearance will see the return of their thunderous metal, mixed with infectious J-pop that’s taken the world by storm. With figurehead Ice T at the helm, Body Count’s mix of harsh political messages and powerful hard-core sensibilities have made the rap metal icons unmissable, as well as In This Moment who are led by the entrancing Maria Brink and ready to bring a gothic, industrial, metal spectacle to make Download proud.

BABYMETAL said:

“We are so happy to announce that we will be playing at Download UK!! We were last there in 2016 and it is an absolute honour to be returning to this prestigious festival next year. Can’t wait to go back and see everyone there!”

Purveyors of garage-punk noise The Hives are confirmed, with frontman Howlin' Pelle Almqvist guaranteed to leave no stone unturned with a set of frantic non-stop rock n’ roll. Making their Download Festival debut are pop punks scousers WSTR who have propelled themselves throughout the last year, as well as emo pop favourites Mayday Parade who are hot off the back of a successful ten-year anniversary tour.

Selling out Brixton Academy and making massive waves as the break out luminaries of UK pop-punk, Wrexham five-piece Neck Deep are returning to Download Festival along with Seattle’s The Pink Slips with their fusion of “synth-pop, punk, dance and vintage rock ‘n’ roll”, fronted by the ferocious GRAVE, daughter of Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan. Last but no means least are rising stars Dream State with their no-nonsense, melodic emo rock which has earned them their debut Download appearance.

Download Festival is the home of rock music and takes place on the sacred grounds of Donington Park, which have been associated with rock since the eighties. The festival attracts icons of rock to its main stage, plus some of the best and hottest new acts in the world. AC/DC, KISS, Metallica, Black Sabbath, The Prodigy, Rage Against The Machine, Slipknot, Linkin Park and many more have all headlined its main stage.

Alexisonfire come together at Reading and Leeds Festival

November 18, 2018March 9, 2015 by Summer Festival Guide

ALEXISONFIRE have announced they will come together for a series of summer festivals. They have made Reading and Leeds their exclusive European performance.

The classic lineup of George Pettit, Chris Steele, Wade MacNeil, Dallas Green and Jordan ‘Ratbeard’ Hastings will come back to British soil for the first time since they briefly reunited for a worldwide 10^th anniversary tour in 2012.

One of the biggest bands to come out of Canada’s underground music scene, Alexisonfire released four successful albums internationally, and amassed a legion of fans all over the world.

ALEXISONFIRE play the Main Stage on Saturday at Reading and Sunday at Leeds, joining headliners Metallica alongside Bring Me The Horizon, Royal Blood, Pierce The Veil and Marmozets.

Mumford & Sons and The Libertines will also headline the Festivals this August Bank Holiday