2000Trees (Thursday): Kneecap, Vexed, Unpeople Reign Supreme Under the Cheltenham Sunshine [Photos]

Located in the idyllic surroundings of Upcote Farm outside Cheltenham, 2000trees is rapidly becoming the alternative festival of the Summer and this year, with a killer line-up featuring everyone from Alexisonfire to Pvris to Kneecap and over a hundred other acts, organisers made sure this was their biggest and best line-up to date.

By the time the festival kicks off in full on the Thursday, you only have to take a quick scan down the Clashfinder schedule to find, not only are you treated to a line-up that really does have something for anyone who likes the “alternative” side of music but, one that is going to give you headache trying to fit everything in.

The main stage kicks off with spoken-word punk rock of Meryl Streek, making the best effort of waking up a big crowd, soaking up the July sunshine. Throughout the rest of the day, the relentless sunshine did its best to sap the energy of this crowd, but equally glorious main stage sets from the highly-rated unpeople, who it feels like are the house band here at 2000trees these days. Brighton punks SNAYX we know already are an explosive live band, but will the unrelenting heat and the outdoor setting take some of the edge off their set? Of course it won’t. In fact, it almost feels like the sun and the daylight is making them rage even harder.

It seems like an absolute age since the tech-metal juggernaut known as Vexed has bulldozed its way into our attention, but that’s exactly what they do here today. Tearing through brutal outbursts like “Anti Fetish,” Vexed pummel through their short set, leaving a battered audience wondering what they’d just experienced. Another band who hit the headlines in the UK scene, then almost disappeared off the map, were Puppy and, here today, while there wasn’t enough time to catch their full set due to other duties, the punk rock three-piece kicked up enough of a stink to make us realize how much we had missed them.

Now, the name Lake Malice has been stirring up a hornet’s nest on the live circuit these past twelve months and, again, proves why they’re one of the most exciting modern metal bands around. Fronted by the howling whirlwind known as Alice Guala, Lake Malice are fast becoming an unstoppable force on the live arena and, here today, they proved again that you’d be a fool to get in their way.

We’re heading towards the end of our first day at 2000trees, and if any band was to be the perfect warm-up to headliners Kneecap, then Kid Kapichi are that band. A scathing attack on modern Britain, their visceral punk rock outbursts stick a light under 2000trees and set things up nicely for the day’s main event. Sandwiched in between the two bands is PVRIS, a band that, at this moment in time, sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb.

However, Lynn Gunn isn’t going to shy into the background for this one, and they deliver the kind of epic, dramatic set that, in all honesty and in any other setting, would have been the highlight of the weekend. Gunn looks and sounds effortlessly cool, and their hardcore crowd soak up this electronic alt-rock masterclass, but you still feel a good portion have their eye on what is to follow.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last eighteen months, you won’t have been able to avoid the controversy surrounding Irish hip-hop crew Kneecap. The fact that they’re even here, given the media shitshow that has followed them since their controversial Glastonbury performance a few weeks ago, is a miracle. However, with that behind them, Kneecap prove themselves to be one of the most exciting bands on the music scene at the moment.

They light a fuse under this already primed to go off crowd, and it doesn’t take long for this to turn into a proper kick-off. There are passioned speeches from the stage, chants from the crowd and a whole set of huge anthems to bring the first proper day of music to an amped-up, crackling with energy, raging close. The establishment might be trying to bring Kneecap down, but here, at the end of a long, hot day in Cheltenham, the hip-hop outfit reigned supreme.

2000Trees returns to Upcote Farm from July 8th 2026 to July 11th 2026. Get more info and ticket details here.

Our photographer, Maryleen Photography, brought back this photo gallery from day one. Check it out here:

2000 Trees (Day 1) @ Upcote Farm (Withington, UK) on July 10th 2025

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