2000trees, the UK’s hottest festival, both figuratively and literally, is back for its 2026 edition. Four days of the finest rock covering everything from local legends to the next global superstars.
2000trees Festival 2026 – Wednesday
Split Dogs
Kicking things off for 2000trees 2026 is Split Dogs, who, despite their early billing in a reduced capacity on Wednesday, summoned an impressive crowd that neatly packed the Forest Stage.
The perks of such an early billing is a crowd brimming with enthusiasm and energy, perfect for Split Dogs’ raucous punk-rock attitude.
Singer Harry Atkins captivates the early headbangers with rebellious rasping vocals alongside the imperious riffs of Mil Martinez, which could as well have been plucked straight from the basements of the ’70s.
Shouting out the early birds for bringing the energy, Mil leaves us with a vital note of wellbeing for what is to come – “Don’t get sunstroke, stay hydrated and stay in the shade.”
Love Rarely
We have a new and improved Word Stage for 2026, allowing even more of the Wednesday arrivals to pack in as Love Rarely have the task of christening their upgraded podium.
The beauty of the first day of the festival is that there are no clashes, which means that despite the enlarged tent, the audience is still spilling out into the campsite. This is the band’s second appearance in a row at the festival, but with a new album dropped just in April, they come armed with plenty of new material.
No upscale audience is going to scare this glorious, chaotic racket with their booming basslines, complex melodic hooks and dyingly passionate vocals. The craftsmanship of the band only seemed slightly challenged by the early festival fine-tuning of the sound.
There were moments in the set when the delicate harmonics of the guitar and intimate voice of Courtney Jade seemed swamped by the intense noise of the bass and drums. But the muddy mix could not bury them as Courtney’s desperate screams soared above the noise.
Karen Dio
We Brits love to moan about the weather, but when a Brazilian enters the stage with complaints of the heat, you have to feel somewhat validated.
Appropriately tempered for the fire of last year’s main stager, the experienced rocker arrives amidst calls to “be present, have fun”. The playful yet powerful set is the sort of performance you would expect to be used in a university class to show how it is done.
Karen Dio delivers her kick-ass punk-rock tunes with absolute ease whilst navigating from song to song with a humour and charm that makes the show ceaseless. Lost in the showmanship of the short but sweet performance, it seems over as quickly as it started, but at least we were present, and we had fun.
Bruise Control
There is just something about a shirtless man walking onto stage brandishing a likely warm can of Magners that tells you the next act is going to be quite the ride.
Existing somewhere on a spectrum between Soft Play and early Arctic Monkeys, the four-piece taste of a brawl down at your local boozer and bring the antics with their lively stage show.
Hyphen
This festival, from time to time, will serve up a show that transcends any expectations, and Hyphen’s set at 2000trees 2026 was exactly that. The breakout act summoned a huge crowd to the Neu Stage for the last edition of the festival, most of whom were already well versed in the back catalogue of the artist.
Given the roaring success of his last appearance, it is not hard to see why he was invited back for another shot, and this time to the most dedicated of the 2000trees community.
Unsurprisingly, the Forest is jam-packed ahead of this one for someone who is quickly becoming a festival favourite alongside the likes of the Nova Twins, Holding Absence and his recent tourmate Bob Vylan.
LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE. The sound system blares, introducing our fighter like a hometown hero to the backing track of ABBA’s Gimme Gimme Gimme. Hyphen has a talent that few can master. His music challenges the political injustice of the modern world with ferocity, but he does so with no deterioration to his optimism.
The show is a rallying call to all those of like-minded opinion, fueling rebellion but never losing sight of the beauty of the loving chosen community that we share.
Jacked on the adrenaline of the stellar support, Hyphen is euphoric, storming around the stage and even taking a dive into the circle pit to get a taste of the action for himself.
There are several occasions throughout the set that Hyphen naively tries to teach his lyrics of songs, such as Marching Powder and Hate Yachts Not Dinghys, to the crowd, before immediately being interrupted by a chorus of those already in the know.
It is no wonder that he proudly proclaims, “I fucking love this place.”
BLACKGOLD
Another of last year’s main stagers are the masked mob of BLACKGOLD. It cannot be easy taking to this heat in full mask, but they do not let it take anything away from their furious Nu-Metal.
At a time when the touring circuit is being led by the likes of Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and Korn, it could not be a better moment for this curious band to grab the opportunity by the throat.
Seemingly constantly on tour since their last 2000trees appearance, despite a slightly premature ending to their CKY support appearances, the group are in top form, bringing heaps of energy to a slot that could easily have suffered a post-dinner dip.
The Dirty Nil
Arguably, James Scarlette’s most hyped band of the festival this year, barely a week has gone by on the Two Promoters One Pod podcast without them getting an honourable mention. Wednesday offers an early glimpse at what the highly recommended have to offer, but not through the lens of their own music. Tonight, we have a covers set.
Taking us on a whistle-stop tour from Metallica, to Van Halen, to AC/DC and Thin Lizzy, the band boldly claims “we wrote all these songs”, and while that may not be true, they certainly showed true musicianship by bouncing between these songs with ease.
As a covers set should be, this was a pure and simple good time gathering with plenty of smiles left on faces going into the final few acts of the opening day.
Split Chain
A breakneck change in atmosphere from the previous performance as frontman Bert Martínez-Cowles paces menacingly around the Word stage to a backdrop of twanging guitar and booming drums.
The mood of the music may be brooding, but the mood in the tent still has plenty of vibrance thanks to persistent calls for crowd surfers and mosh pits from Bert.
The band bring their everything to make this show a set to remember, the music is scalding and churns up plenty who surf their way to free band t-shirts whilst beachballs are released into the crowd for an additional cathartic outlet.
Lake Malice
Hands up if you have not seen Lake Malice in the last year? The unstoppable touring machine seemed to be attached to every support slot in the Metalcore scene, and it shows.
Performance looks easy for the three-piece, fully clad in white to pop from the darkness of the stage. The trademark kick-jumps of Blake Cornwall are plentiful while Alice Guala bares her soul in emotional defiance.
The early part of the show sets the mood perfectly with atmospheric lighting and impactful presence from the band, but it feels as though some of the big moments could hit harder with a bit more bite to bring us along with them.
Thankfully, as the set goes on, the power elevates, and with it, a flurry of activity in the centre of the tent, which Blake takes a stroll to experience, while Alice prefers the aerial approach with a bit of crowd surfing.
PUP
Closing the first day out, all the way from Toronto, are PUP. The longstanding Canadian quartet will be making two appearances over the weekend and took this extra special moment in the idyllic forest to pay tribute to their album, The Dream Is Over, which is 10 years old.
Before launching into a full play of the album, lead singer Stefan Babcock shared a perfectly Trees thought on the current state of the world, that “Out there it sucks, but in here we have an opportunity to make it suck a little less.”
The show is filled with euphoria to leave the spectacular opening day on a high, with the final reserves of energy producing a handful of crowd surfers and mosh pits. The album is closed out with a song that the band admit they have only ever played once before, not out of dislike but because it is a bit of a mood killer.
Stefan knows his crowd, though, and yells out, “You motherfuckers like being sad?” before launching into the track. Having covered their album in speedy time, the band have a quick meeting before returning with a fanfare of Reservoir and Hunger For Death before the crowd disperses into the campsite for the late-night antics to begin.
