Having only just recovered from my sentimental night out watching Arcane Roots tear apart both my soul and the tent they were playing in, I’m up for giving it one final go at the Saturday of 2000trees 2026 and right as I wake up and get going, I’m noticing that I feel surprisingly good. The benefit of attending a festival during a heatwave is that I tend to drink more water than I do during an entire season and combined with only two or three alcoholic beverages each night, I’m feeling better than ever on the final festival day of this year’s Trees. Today’s line-up is once again packed with many bands I’m looking forward to seeing perform, most of ‘em scheduled to play during the early afternoon already. My personal headliner for this day however, will be kicking off my evening: Marmozets. Much like yesterday, seeing Marmozets makes for another nostalgic and melancholic journey taking me right back many years in time. Much in cohesion with Arcane Roots is the Bingley band’s break-up and return, therefore making this edition of 2000trees extra special for me. Marmozets dropped their first album since 2018 ‘CO.WAR.DICE.’ earlier this year and understandably, their highly anticipated return to the festival stage meant playing a few new tunes in a set that was otherwise mostly packed with classics from albums ‘The Weird And Wonderful Marmozets’ (2014) and ‘Knowing What You Know Now’ (2018). Being able to sing along with some of the most enjoyable tunes off of those latter albums was a real blast and it was such a great way to wrap up my final daytime at this amazing festival this year and seen as I’m not bothered about this year’s main stage headliner, I probably won’t be popping back down to this area again this year. While Marmozets’ set didn’t have as much emotional impact on me as Arcane Roots’ did, I still had a fantastic time finally seeing this band play live and I’m overjoyed I can now finally check them off of my non-existing bucket list of bands I would like to see live before I die.

My hardcore-highlight of this year’s Trees came in the form of Bodyweb whose show was squeezed right in between a block of math-bands I wanted to see. Arguably, the transition from Bodyweb to Alpha Male Tea Party was pretty challenging, if not in the first place because the former absolute tore down The Cave today. The Leeds band, featuring members of acclaimed HC bands such as Higher Power and Pest Control amongst others, bursted onto the scene back in 2023 with their debut EP ‘train_wreck_simulation’ and it’s all been kicking off from there on out. Just like their set, you’ve got no time slacking while listening to Bodyweb. Playing the majority of their catalogue including former Jams ‘shadowboxing’ and ‘deadwire’, this set was an absolute crash course right from the start. I’ve mentioned before that I’m not much of a mosher anymore these days (being dependent on wearing glasses really makes you think twice before diving into a hardcore pit) but I was awfully close to putting all this aside and go mad in the Bodyweb-pit. Alas. Luckily, I had plenty of room at the front to go absolutely mental on my own. Top-notch show.

All hail the Battlesnake! Last year’s craziest heavy metal band returns! Whereas they did a great job breaking down the Forest stage in 2025, the Aussies are now ripping up the main stage at 1pm, causing the dustiest and most devilish moshpit of the weekend. The theatrical band once again told their fantastical tales about slaying satan, a wizard defeating the nightmare king, and a serpent straight from hell in a way many fantasy-themed shows and films could learn a lesson from. It’s hard to put the experience of seeing this fantasy-influenced metal band to words. Battlesnake invites the crowd to be wholeheartedly dragged into their mystical world of malicious adventures and dramatic battles and assisted by some smoking hot guitar- and keytar-riffs, you end up in some kind of surrealistic enchanted 80s hair metal domain controlled by wizards and witches. I’m sure some people in the crowd were wondering whether they had suffered a heat stroke or not as they were processing this band’s performance in the scorching heat.

What a treat seeing Bicurious play this festival. The Irish/French math-duo gained a little cult following after releasing some stellar instrumental songs, but picked up on the vocals with their well-rounded and Jam of Today-appraised second album ‘Your Life is Over Now…’. Today’s set at the smallest music stage of the festival is only a short one, though it’s packed with some of the biggest crowdpleasers, including infamous tunes such as ‘Sleep’ and ‘I Don’t Do Drugs, I Just Sweat a Lot’.  The latter being a very relatable title, it was nice going all-out in this flaming hot tent at 1:30 in the afternoon and I’m happy to have heard some of my favourite songs of 2024 being played live again. Bicurious proved their worth once again.

•⁠  ⁠Ain’t’s set was equally as memorable as that one time I saw them open up for some act at some venue in some city somewhere in the last one, two, or three years.
•⁠  ⁠Nice to see Reading pop-punkers CARSICK well-deservedly made it to the biggest stage of the festival this year, albeit at eleven o’clock in the morning.
•⁠  ⁠London punks ⁠Luxury Apartments certainly weren’t one of a kind but it was nice to break the hardcore spell in The Cave for a change.
•⁠  ⁠Turned out my camping neighbour played glockenspiel in Lakes so I naturally had to come and check out their chill indie set.
•⁠  ⁠Math-experts Alpha Male Tea Party brought a bit of Arctangent to Trees.
•⁠  The acoustic Arcane Roots set in the forest was packed with old album tracks I’d never expect to hear live, but I managed to keep it together this time and only quietly sing along during yet another performance packed with all-time favourites.
•⁠  ⁠Cutting short Ho99o9’s set was probably the least surprising thing that happened during this amazingly unhinged show.
•⁠  ⁠High Vis’ heart-wrenchingly raw hardcore set left the audience in The Cave with a lump in their throat as we all said our emotional goodbyes to 2000trees 2026.