Opening up mid afternoon for a handful of people keen to get an extra day in at the festival, Wednesday early entry has become an intimate warm up party to get you ready for 3 days of non stop live performances from the best acts on the scene.
With just two stages open on Wednesday, theres still a huge amount of music on offer. With The Forest Sessions and the word stage offering the evenings entertainment, you had the best of both worlds. Securing the best camping spots, while also enjoying seeing bands with a smaller audience around you made that extra night of camping totally worth it. Wednesday acted as the perfect day to set up your tent and take some time to get to grips with the layout of the site while also exploring all non musical options and areas.
One of the biggest reasons to have headed down to 2000 Trees on Wednesday came from Press To Meco having their final ever show. Drawing in a massive crowd across the forest stage, it was clear everyone was excited to see this incredibly bittersweet show. Packed out right from the barrier to the very back edge of the forest, this set was a gorgeous out pouring of love for a very special band. Opening with Another Day, the crowd were ready to give it their all from the minute the first note was played.
After coming back in 2022 for “one last performance” we have the 2000 trees organisers to thank for the band getting together one final time, and it was easy to tell it meant a lot to the everyone there.
Throughout their short set, you could see the emotion on the bands faces that this was a super important show for them. Giving it their all to an adoring audience, we got to hear a selection of hits played to the highest standard. Sabotage and Baby Steps got people going for some noisier moments, with If All Your Parts Don’t Make A Whole showing off one of their more pop punk and brighter sounding tracks.
Giving us one extra push to draw every last ounce of feeling from us, the trio took a few moments to play what they said would be an emotional one. A Test of Our Resolve was one of the most perfect choices for a penultimate track, really driving home that this was almost the end, it was hard to find dry eyes within the audience. After getting all the “emotional shit” out the way, the Press To MECO lads gave us a hard banger to see us out on an unforgettable show. Gold took the audience from happy sad tears streaming down our face to an energetic party. With everyone jumping around and getting that final crowd surf in, this was the perfect and deserving send off. Even though we knew this was the end, it didn’t stop the audience chanting “One more year” as the band finished their final track.
With two performances across the weekend, Holding Absence gave their first as sub headliners in the forest. Drawing in an enormous crowd, this is a band you’ll never leave feeling disappointed.
Packed from wall to wall, every inch of the area was covered with eager fans getting down early to secure the perfect spot. Having played The Cave, Neu and Axiom stages in previous year, this was the first of the final two stages to tick off.
Walking on stage with an infectious high energy, frontman Lucas managed to elevate an already ecstatic energy from the crowd to another level. Celebration Song gave such a perfect atmospheric opening to the forest set and geared everyone up to be jumping up and down for the entire evening.
From start to finish, it became even clearer this band has no signs of slowing down any time soon. With an accelerated fan base that doesn’t stop growing, this smaller and slightly more intimate set gave the energy of a main stage performance. With flawless bangers Curse Me With Your Kiss and Monochrome, came a slower few moments with heartfelt track You Are Everything. Everywhere you looked in the audience, the crowd had grins from ear to ear as they belted out every single lyric. Finalising the evening with Afterlife gave another huge eruption of love and had us starting to count down to the main stage performance.
Following on from an incredible set in the forest, you could tell the anticipation for a full main stage set later in the weekend was bursting. With one stage left to play before having bragging rights to playing every stage, you could tell this was just the tip of the iceberg of what Holding Absence have to offer in the coming months.
