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After doing the interview with James one of the
organisers of Two Thousand Trees it was just too tempting not to go
and see the festival with my own eyes. So I packed up the tent and
drove to Upcote Farm in Cheltenham to experience the first ever Two
Thousand Trees Festival. |
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On arrival the weather sucked…it rained, it was
muddy, it was cold, but the atmosphere was buzzing and there was a
real sense of spirit in the air. Everybody seemed to be expecting
good things from this festival. Despite it being the smallest
festival site I’ve ever seen it worked and everybody got into the
swing of things pretty quickly. The tents managed to go up despite
the hellish wind and never-ending rain and once the bar opened and
the festival cider (aptly named Badgers Bottom!) got flowing things
started to liven up. The first band took to the stage and the
Festival began! |
The Anomalies |
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Jim Lockey |
The rain got worse into the evening but the festival
picked up momentum and everybody had a great time! Highlights for me
were
The Anomalies who despite not being my normal cup of tea at all
put on a great show and got the crowd going,
The Novocaines were another great band and
Frank Turner who headlined went down a storm! I made sure I was
at the Acoustic Stage in time to see
Jim Lockey who is a personal favourite of mine, having seen him
in Bristol a few times and he didn’t disappoint. With a full tent
audience he put on a great show! |
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Sleep was as rare as always at a festival but mainly
due to the rain and wind which were horrendous through the night
(although the person falling into our tent and landing on my head
didn’t help!!). I’ve known worse noise at festivals though and
people were pretty respectful of others, which made a nice change!
We woke up Saturday to beautiful weather. The wellies were still
required wear due to the rain the day before and through the night
but it was all systems go for Day Two! |
Brigade |
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Bizalli
Halagoogoo |
I stuck to the main stage for the whole day…there
were just too many bands I wanted to check out so I found a not so
wet spot and got comfy! Highlights of the day were
Bizali a Bristol band who were fantastic (and have had a Number
One in Luxembourg!),
Halagoogoo who were another Bristol band and full of
personality…just their outfits (or lack of Mr Drummer!!!) said it
all,
Irritant were particularly good as a traditional rock band,
great musical breaks,
Devil Sold His Soul were brilliant and a band I’ll definitely be
keeping an eye on.
Brigade were good as always and headlining were
InMe, one of my favourite bands, so I’m probably biased, but
they put on a great show full of a mix of new and old tracks and
closed the festival in true rock style! |
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Unfortunately I missed the last night revelries in
the campsite which looked set to be great fun, as I rushed back to
make Ashton Court’s Sunday set….which as everyone will know by now
was a waste of time!
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InMe |
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InMe |
So did we get what we were promised from Two Thousand
Trees? A back to basics festival that had all the important aspects
and none of the commercial ones. Well…there was good food on offer
at reasonable prices (and a lot of fair trade/organic which adds a
bonus), the bar was fairly priced and had local brews (the cider
being a particular hit), the few stalls were for more low key
products, no big name traders and not too many! The music was well
picked and completely enjoyable, the atmosphere was the best
festival atmosphere I’ve been part of and finally the thing that I
enjoyed most was that every band on the main stage was introduced…a
personal touch that I’ve never seen at a festival and really liked!
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I have to add a note about the environmental aspect
of the festival…the stage electrics were run by generators using
bio-diesel…the rubbish was looked after by an organisation called
the Maker Green Team, with recycling bins all over the festival site
this was the cleanest and greenest festival/gig site I’ve ever seen!
A sign of how things should always be!
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InMe |
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A big well done to the organisers….it was their first
time organising a festival and they did a sterling job! Roll on Two
Thousand Trees 2008! |
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