Festival News: 2000trees has finally revealed its first wave of acts
After a week of cryptic clues and increasingly feverish speculation, 2000trees has finally revealed its first wave of acts for their 20th anniversary… and, as ever, the festival has managed to keep a few surprises up its sleeve. One of the only things organisers had been willing to confirm beforehand was a heart-breaking and quickly shared “no Enter Shikari this year amigos x” reply on an Instagram post — but it’s a pretty damn good line-up announcement anyway.
The biggest name on the poster, understandably, is New Found Glory, who are celebrating their 30th anniversary of being a band by pulling double duty and both headlining on the Thursday and playing a deep cuts set in The Forest on the Friday. Although a long-awaited headliner, it feels a little bittersweet with Chad Gilbert’s death earlier in the year — but that just means Cheltenham have to sing even louder in his memory.
Speaking of double duty, there’s a few more on the cards. For one, there’s the return of Jamie Lenman, who came out of 2024’s retirement with a quickly sold out show at Bush Hall on Wednesday; but that’s not all. ‘Double duty’, you say? Yes — shared a full hour before the rest of the lineup dropped, probably to let people get it out of their system and calm back down, is the return of Reuben and their first show in 19 years! There’s also Hot Water Music, whose frontman Chuck Ragan is both playing and curating The Forest on The Friday.
For some of the other heavy hitters, you’ve got The Menzingers doing an ‘After The Party’ 10th Anniversary set; Jason Aalon Butler’s Fever333 — a surprise he was invited back, after climbing the scaffolding of the main stage and screaming ‘27 Club’ from the light scaffolding with the sound cut off by nervous sound engineers — the duo of 2000trees favourites Unpeople and Creeper, the latter of whom for which 2000trees in the only UK festival date of 2007; the long-awaited Mannequin Pussy; Chalk, who are about to embark on a European tour supporting Fontaines D.C.; Vower, who are headlining The Cave on one of the days; Lonely The Brave — who are about to perform their first shows with vocalist David Jakes since 2018 — InMe, who headlined the first 2000trees in 2007, and are returning 20 years later to perform that same set that helped kickstart the festival; and a whole, 46-name strong host of other favourites both new and old, including Taylor Acorn, Bayside, The Meffs, Electric Six, Baby Lasagna, The Barbarians Of California, Native James, False Reality and Yee Loi.
But that’s not all. Turns out there’s a stage takeover, with Friday’s The Forest stage instead being the setting for the intimate, collaborative, and intensely wholesome ‘The Revival tour’. Curated by the aforementioned Hot Water Music’s Chuck Ragan, and presumably headlined by that second, deep-cuts set of New Found Glory, it’s a hell of an intimate stage; you’ve got both The Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon, returning after headlining the festival back in 2024, and Alkaline Trio’s Dan Andriano, whose own headline set this year sadly didn’t happen, as well as the likes of Dave Hause, Tim Barry, Emily Barker and Jenny Owen Youngs.
There are even day splits already, on the website and app at least — take them with a pinch of salt, as obviously nothing’s officially confirmed, but good to get a head start on potential clashes!
But let’s be honest: if you’re reading this far, you’re already a 2000trees convert, and you don’t need much of a sway to find yourselves in Cheltenham in July. Save yourself the hassle and buy your tickets for 2000trees 2027 now!
Words by James O’Sullivan
