Sunshine, the smell of adolescence, great company and phenomenal music all await. Hell, it must be time for another of the summers brilliant small festivals!

Having made my departure from UK festivals way back in 2011, given the rising prices and comparable line-ups across Europe, 2000 Trees was my return to form. More than anything, the incomparable line up (for the price) first caught my attention. The ability to see bands I’ve loved old and new like: Fatherson, Cleft, And So I Watch You From Afar, Future of the Left, Turbowolf, We Are The Ocean, Mclusky, Alkaline Trio, Black Peaks and loads, loads more, made me jump at the opportunity. What’s more the price, a very reasonable £72 (including camping!), worked out close to what a relatively relaxed weekend may set you back. It was a no brainer.

I arrived on a sunny Thursday afternoon brimming with the excitement of hearing some great music, but was greeted instantly with a very manageable campsite – within 15 minutes I was unpacked, tents were erected and beer was in hand. I was quick to check out the festival layout, visiting an early acoustic set by The Subways happening down on the forest stage as well as geolocating the festival toilets prior to nightfall making the task much harder than it needed to be. Luckily, seeing some of the opening music was quick to follow suit and retrieving drinks from my supply at the tent to get myself suitably ‘in the mood’ was incredibly easy, given the proximity to the stages. This is something that remained incredibly easy throughout the weekend, as you only ever had at most a 10-minute drunken stumble to collect your drink before being back at the stage in no time. The day continued with more great music, this time from the highly anticipated We Are The Ocean – who provided an energetic and intense set that welcomed in the sunset and set into motions the ambiance for the weekend ahead. Closing the night The Subways plugged themselves in to provide some well welcomed nostalgia, which started the weekends proceedings in style, circle pits and sing-alongs. It really was like walking down your street again at seventeen…

Friday continued the small festival friendly atmosphere, a tasty vegetarian breakfast set me up well and dusted off the previous nights hangover (and I’m a meat-eater!) and I got the chance to mingle with some of my fellow 2000 Trees festival goers. This was when it became very noticeable that the atmosphere was incredible genuine and welcoming, with everyone both up for a good time and also happy to exchange good festival banter alike, a bit like visiting a local band play a town hall when you were younger. It was a great feeling and made it incredibly difficult to not enjoy yourself for the duration.

The musical excellence started with a wonderfully chilled acoustic set from The Cadbury Sisters – who even crammed in an 'Enter Sandman' cover which made me and others get goosebumps. Hats off girls! Next up I caught Fatherson, a band I’ve been listening to a long time, who were truly appreciative of the audience – something that is always great to see in an up-and-coming band. Cleft, a band that had to move their slot around due to unforeseen circumstances, were well received over on the main stage and seriously kicked out as good a rock set than any two-piece I’ve ever seen. After a fair dose of sunshine and a couple of afternoon White Russians from the bar, the festivities continued with an impromptu sponge fight down near the main stage and some serious swing-balling in among the other retro games section on hand.

Next came Future of the Left to really let everyone get in tune with their angsty adolescent rage. Circle pits, wonderfully bizarre lyrics and the expected piss-ripping into the crowd showed that Falco and crowd, somewhat 2000 Trees regulars, are still very much on top of their game and they meant to set the standard high for newcomers to the festival. This continued the theme of the day and some very welcome good weather, great music and company proved that 2000 Trees was beyond your try-out small festival, and more among a comfortable and incredibly well organised affair. Honestly, I can think of very little that could be seen as a frustration all weekend, and I can’t tell you how good that feels.

Saturday saw more fantastic acts take to the stages, Black Peaks – a band that have gotten an awful lot of radio play (Zane Lowe is a big fan) brought the show spectacularly early. Starting just after lunchtime their set was as vicious, punchy and musically brilliant as I’d been expecting to hear. I expect they are a band that will be climbing the bill at many a line up in the coming months and years. As the sun continued to shine, the drinks continued to flow and bands like And So I Watch You From Afar and Skinny Lister gave a wonderful musical dichotomy from riff-churning rock to dance-along skanking. All in all it made a great setting for the, now very lively, festival atmosphere to allow us all to relieve ourselves from our inhibitions and fully appreciate the talent and all round fun-time feeling that everyone at the festival shared.

Perhaps a highlight of many of the attendees weekend was the chance to see Mclusky rise from the ashes. Something they did with a serious amount of style and, this time playing in The Cave, gave it the sweaty pub backroom atmosphere that was required to thrash it out to old favourites like 'Lightsaber' 'Cocksucking Blues' and 'To Hell With Good Intentions'. It’s been nearly a decade since I last saw them play in Cardiff and they left nothing on the table and played an outstandingly rocking set. A notable mention goes out to Damien Sayell stepping in a guest vocalist and giving the performance the fierceness and energy that was required for a band of this stature. Collectively, their band is most definitely bigger than your band. Sing it.

We closed the weekend off in an incredibly chilled out fashion, sitting in a hammock at the forest stage, sipping a White Russian and being aurally entertained by Written in Waters – another one of the weekends memorable highlights. It was then that I got the time to reflect on my overall 2000 Trees festival experience... Pleasantly, I can honestly say it was one of the best festival experiences I can remember (and I’ve been to a lot of festivals), the organisation was superb, the size and layout entirely effortless (even when intoxicated) and the line up truly delivered. There’s something about a festival the size where you can actually hear which band is playing on each stage from your tent, without having to set off an hour prior to them starting to make sure you ‘make it in time’. Being a country lad myself I truly take my hat off to the organisers in creating something that is both enjoyable for all, but also attracts bands that people want to see.

I strongly recommend you keep an eye out for the line up next year and if you do decide to come, I’ll see you down at the front.

Review By Ned Poulter

Photos by Chris Poots

Earlybird Tickets for 2000 Trees 2016 on sale now