'Seeing who's going to be the next big band is really thrilling' - 2000trees co-founder James Scarlett on curating the perfect festival

Launched by six friends with a love of rock music, 2000trees boasts stellar headline acts, new music discoveries and a fantastic atmosphere

(Gareth Bull)

2000trees is one of the best independent music festivals around, consistently going above and beyond when it comes to vibrant, diverse lineups and offering an all-round excellent experience for its 10,000 guests each year.

Set in the beautiful Cotswold Hills, its six founders have dedicated themselves to bringing the best new and underground music around to one place, over one weekend in July; catering to all tastes from rock to metal, folk to indie, pop and electronic.

This year you've got such stellar acts as Turnstile, Fatherson, The XCERTS, Arcane Roots, Grumble Bee, Bryde, Boston Manor, Black Peaks, Nervus, Bitch Falcon, Funeral Shakes, Fangclub and Mallory Knox, plus headliners At The Drive in, Twin Atlantic and Enter Shikari.

We caught up with one of 2000trees' co-founders James Scarlett to talk about how the festival came about, the challenges of running a large-scale music event, and how he feels about the current music landscape.

Hey James! Tell us a bit about how 2000trees began.

There are six of us who organise it – none of us had ever promoted a gig, managed a band… we just liked going to music festivals. We used to go to the bigger rock festivals, and to a few smaller boutique ones, but it didn’t feel as though they catered to the music we loved. So we got drunk one night around a campsite and decided we could do a better one, and that’s where 2000trees started.

It was probably a bit scary in the first year?

It was properly terrifying. It still is, in some ways, because your whole year revolves around one weekend – or two, because we do Arctangent as well. But year one was especially scary. This is the 12th year, and it’s gone from 1,000 guests to 10,000, which we’re very proud of.

2000trees festival 2016 (Dominic Meason)

It seems to be a proper “artist’s festival” – the sort of event bands genuinely enjoy playing?

Yeah, the backstage bar is just full of bands hanging out, catching up… it’s cool that people like Arcane Roots and the XCERTS will just come and enjoy themselves.

You seem to have a really big focus on new bands as well as great headliners

I’ve been really excited about the ones we’ve booked this year, At The Drive In, Enter Shikari and Twin Atlantic. But I get more excited about who the next one of those is, the medium and smaller bands on the bill. Last year Nothing But Thieves headlined our main stages, and two years before they’d been in a tiny tent, it’s the same with Twin Atlantic. Seeing who’s going to be the next big band is really thrilling.

How do you feel about the way lineups are curated at other festivals?

It’s weird being in a tent and seeing big bands playing to small audiences. That’s the great thing about 2000trees, there are big crowds packed into the tents so you get this great atmosphere.

For instance, there’s this band Brutus, who I absolutely love and have booked this year – their record from last year is one of the most underrated of the last 10 years, in my opinion. Stefanie the vocalist is also the drummer, and she’s got this amazing voice which she uses whilst also hammering the crap out of the drums.

Do you ever find it difficult to separate your personal taste with what you think 2000trees fans might want to see?

I’m 12 years older than when we first started so my taste has shifted a bit so I have to be aware of that. To stay relevant, you have to think about what other people like. It’s a balance between the two things, I think. Picking stuff I wouldn’t usually listen to, but I still know they’re really good bands. I’m absolutely not interested in picking the latest hype band.

Have you made any mistakes in the past sthat you learned from?

The key to running a good festival is… you know that analogy about swans on the water – they look really serene, but you don’t see the feet pedalling madly underneath? That’s what it should be like at a festival, like it’s probably chaos in the background but everything going smoothly on the surface.

We had a powercut during a headline once, which wasn’t fun. It was completely random, and it was only off for a few minutes, but it was really stressful. Now, it’s bigger, more polished, it feels nicer… you can wander round and see this great mix of people enjoying it: young kids, families, teenagers with their mates…

Do you agree with other festival organisers who claim it's difficult to curate a diverse lineup?

I think you have to be careful, because if I say we've booked loads of bands with women in, and then we don't next year, I'm open to lots of criticism. This is easy for me - a white male - to say, but I feel I should be booking based on merit. If I like a band, I book them. So this year, I tried to get a band with female members for a headline act, they said no... there are numerous other bands I tried to book that said no. It's not like the 120 bands you book are all your first choice.

I really want to represent women fairly, and I don't want to be part of any male conspiracy to keep women out of the industry, which there may well be, but I think those things take place at labels and record stations, and all festivals want to do is put on the best lineups. We've done some research of major labels, booking agencies, and we have a higher percentage of women in bands at our festival than all of them... and that's where I get my bands from!

How are you feeling about the future for music festivals?

I do worry, about virtual reality and kids not wanting to leave the house and stuff like that. But you cannot beat the feeling of going to a gig, being there and interacting with other people. What I love about live music is, what makes a great gig is all these different factors: how the band are playing, how you feel on the night and what the people around you are like. There's a great community around rock music, you get the same people coming back to the festival each year because they want to meet up again, they trust our bookings so they get tickets for the next year immediately after the one that's just gone.

2000trees festival takes place Thursday 12 July - Saturday 14 July