2000 Trees Set-Up Diary - Day One (the one where Hayley just can't believe she's here)

Everybody loves a weekend right? Except people who work in retail (ahem). They wouldn’t even notice it wasn’t a week day if it wasn’t for the sudden influx of humans in the shop. But despite my daytime employment situation, I too am a fan of the weekend. This weekend, however, is something else altogether.

Yesterday morning, I arrived at Upcote Farm, Withington for the first day of set-up at the glorious 2000 Trees Festival where I will be spending the next eight days and I could not be happier about it if I tried.

After less than 24 hours here I can safely say we’re on course for one of the most memorable experience of my life.

I got here at about 10am and immediately marvelled at the surroundings. Based in the Cotswold Hills, 2000 Trees has the advantage of an actually breath taking view from all angles without even having to put up a single defining feature.

In all the excitement of arriving on site I drove quite randomly looking for Andy, one of the festival’s dedicated organisers. I pulled over once I found the first human I came across, explained to him that I was looking for Andy and was delighted to find out that this was, in fact, Andy. I’m telling you this place is magical.

 

After a quick chat I drove up to The Barn, met a few more members of the family that is this crew

and jumped straight into applying some 2000 Trees vinyl decals to a set of monitor covers. Prepare yourselves for a barrage of pictures of these up on the stage during sets next weekend.

Once that job was jobbed we hopped into a vehicle and drove down to the tree. I, much like you, had no idea what that was other than a strong suspicion that it might be a tree. It transpires that it’s a beautifully large tree, encompassed by a picket fence, in front of which will be the main stage.

We hung out there for the rest of the morning, decorating the tree with fairy lights and re-painting the picket fence. This was pretty lovely in itself, painting is incredibly therapeutic for me and I’m really hoping for an emotional lights ceremony later in the week. If that’s not happening, I’ll strongly suggest it.

But from where we stood we watched the perimeter fence go up and the main stage itself begin construction. Ever since I found out I was coming here I have been excited to see that happen and it’s just as outstanding as I thought it was. To see something that will be so full of life in its bare-bones is really special.

Breaking for lunch we were thoroughly spoilt. It was a great opportunity to meet more of the team, who I will work really hard to introduce to you as I move through the week because I’ve known them for less than a day and already feel quite blessed.

I phoned my mum and wished her a Happy Birthday!

The trial-run that was Download Festival worked in my favour and I managed to get my tent up with ease this time, owed in no small part to the much softer ground. Believe it or not, there was a time at Download Festival 2016 when the ground was not only dry but hard.

After all of the excitement, and the settling of anxious nerves which were completely unnecessary, a nap was in order. The rain has been off and on all day so I snoozed to the pattering of the threatening drops on my tent. It’s easy to drift away when you feel truly content and oddly at home.

My ten-minute nap window came and went and I headed straight back to the barn to paint some

artwork that will (when it’s finished today) be put up at the bar. The rain washed the paint clean off of three of them, but we’ll go ahead and brush right past that.

Besides, the rain meant that the most glorious rainbow stretched over the site. You just don’t get this shit in London.

The whole crew were served a delicious Thai Green Curry and that brings me to now. I’m sitting in The Barn with a can of cider and a Kit Kat, managing to write this only because a new friend sat with me and typed notes whilst I told him what I had done with my day forming a skeleton for this diary that I would not have been able to get my head around otherwise.

Honestly, I can’t believe that I am here. I feel truly honoured, and so incredibly lucky to have been given the opportunity to help set up this festival, to contribute to this event that means so much to so many people, and to meet all of these incredible people.

I have never felt more at home, and more determined to make myself useful! I’ll just point out that this is day one. O-N-E. This week is going to kick all other week’s ass.

Finally, the Louder Now Grab Bag vs Black Veil Brides

Here it is! The final Louder Now Grab Bag victim at Vans Warped Tour UK 2015 was Jinxx of Black Veil Brides! 

It was a huge pleasure to be able to meet with Jinxx and have what was actually a pretty serious chat for us.  

He was, of course, lovely and had a small request for his fans to quit calling him a certain name.

Black Veil Brides also absolutely nailed their headline set with a hell of a lot of pyrotechnics. But who would expect anything less? We got some ridiculously amateur footage of it, which you can check out in our highlight reel (coming up later today). 

ROAM talked about DFS Beds with the Grab Bag...AND their new video of course

And here we see a Pop Punk band relaxing in their natural environment of Warped Tour before being pounced on by a jar of ridiculous questions. 

We met ROAM! What a crazy time those boys are having from touring with some huge names, releasing a typically hilarious video for new single Deadweight, and now playing Warped Tour. 

They completely ripped Warped apart when they took to the stage and even put out a lovely video of the highlights which is exciting. You can check that out on their Facebook but first, watch them face the Grab Bag...

Black Foxxes faced the Louder Now Grab Bag at Warped Tour UK 2015 and we filmed it!

It's no secret that the Louder Now Grab Bag has been getting a bit out of control recently but it came as a huge surprise to all of us that the lovely people over at Warped Tour UK allowed it to run havoc in their press room. 

As it was such a special occasion we decided that the Grab Bag finally needed to be seen in it's full glory so we got a microphone and a tripod, taught ourselves a few rudimental (and in no way impressive) Movie Maker skills, and headed over to Ally Pally. 

So here's number 1! First up we sat down with the sensational Black Foxxes after they rocked the Kevin Says Stage. We hope you enjoy it! 

Make sure you subscribe to our shiny new YouTube channel so you don't miss out on the rest of the Grab Bag's antics at Warped Tour UK, which will be posted sporadically between now and the regular posting day of Wednesday October 28th. 

We'll meet you back here then for a round up of our time at Warped and a nice little highlight reel! 

Never Hill - Netflix, Brownies and Paul Rudd

Never Hill backstage at Nuneaton's Queens Hall

Never Hill played Nuneaton's Queens Hall last week and it was something pretty special. As is their new EP, Epilogue, which they released on June 20th. You can read about what we thought of the record and their show here. But here's some unnecessarily ridiculous questions that we put to the boys before they took to the stage! 

Tell us the best joke you have ever heard:

Jacob: Honestly, I’m blank!

Jake: Google it!

Adam: It’s like you’ve had the worst truth or dare like “Ah, I can’t do this…”

Jake: Okay we can move on and come back…

When was the last time you screamed at the TV?

Daniel: Definitely this week when, SPOILER ALERT, Jon Snow got stabbed to death.

Adam: See I didn’t scream I just cried a little bit.

Daniel: I was devastated, I was actually screaming at Olly the little kid who did it.

Perfect night in?

Jake: That’s easy. Netflix. Daredevil Series, class. With a Chinese takeaway.

Adam: I literally have the opposite of that question…which does not suit me…

Perfect night out?

Jake: We should actually swap. You don’t go out!

Adam: The thing is I really like just going to bars with my mates. If I go to a club I end up getting really embarrassed because I get way to into the dancing. I dunno, I would say going to another gig. It gets me pumped and I’m all “yes! I want to do that.” It’s like when we went to Slam Dunk, I was off on one.  

Jake: With a cheeky nandos!

All collectively: CHEEKY NANDOS!

Tell us the best joke you’ve ever heard.

Dan: Are you ready yet?

Jacob: Hell no!

Dan: Okay we’ll go again.

Have you ever given someone a hickey?

Jacob: Yes! And she’s my wife so. I’ve been with one girl my whole life so…

Is there anything you know this week that you didn’t know last week?

Jake: There was something, I can’t remember what it was. Maybe I should think about it and pass it on.

You’re feeling sick and you can only have one home comfort. What do you choose?

Adam: I would say Game of Thrones, but if it was food.

Jake: What? If Game of Thrones was food?

Adam: No! But that’s my TV show! But, really specifically, if it were food, then it would be Birds Eye Chicken Chargrills, because they’re really nice.

Jake: Ah yeah they are nice.

Is there anything you know this week that you didn’t know last week?

Jake: I’ve remembered my thing now! We are all born with blue eyes. We’re like kittens.

Adam: I looked at you then and thought... “dude, you’ve got brown eyes…”

Jake: No but we start off with blue eyes and then they change.

Weirdly enough, when we put this question to EofE their answer was that there is no Nando's in Never Hill's host town, Nuneaton! Read that interview here.

Tell us the best joke you’ve ever heard.

Jacob: Okay I’ve googled it but this one I actually heard! I went to a really emotional wedding the other day…even the cake was in tiers.  

Jake: Hahaha it’s so good but it’s so bad!

Jacob: Yeah, it wasn’t funny.

Adam: I don’t get it.

Jake: It took me a while but then…tiered…like cake tiers.

Adam: Oh is that what it’s called??

Piercings or tattoos?

Dan: Tattoos, all the way. If I could have more, I would! If I could afford more.

What decade would you most like to have been born in and why?

Jake: Oh god, I don’t know!

Adam: We seem like the most boring people! None of us live a life!  

Jake: All we want is Netflix and jammies. We have made that clear, straight off. Erm, I would probably say the 80s because it looked fun.

Adam: It looked fun? That’s it?

Jake: I would want to be born in the 80s so that Calvin Harris would put me in his song.

Dan: I was born in the 80s.

Jake: Yeah but that’s because you’re old man.

Have you ever broken a bone?

Adam: Yes. I think the funniest one was my nose. I’ve broken quite a few, they’re all from skating really. There was one where one of those pendulum swings. I don’t know why, no one was even on it, but I just stood there and it swung back and hit me in the face, and I just went home. It was the most casual breaking, my nose was on one side. Then there was one where I went over a skate ramp and then just cracked my head off the floor and then went home and didn’t even say bye to any of my friends. So yeah. They’re not really that funny, they’re quite devastating.

You’re bored. What do you do?

Louder Now: You’re not allowed to say Netflix. I’m banning Netflix as an answer.

Jacob: Oh. That’s exactly what I was going to say.

Dan: Well you like to do a particular thing that you made for us last night…

Jacob: When I’m bored, it’s a bit lame, but, I like to bake.

Jake: To be fair, the brownies you brought in yesterday were so good. They were perfect.

Who’s the first person you would choose to be stuck in a lift with?

Jake: You have a wife.

Dan: Yeah but is it like, famous person included? Nah, I won’t go with the wife.

All: Oooooooh.

Dan: Because if you’re going to be stuck in a lift, you’re only going to be in there for a couple of hours so you want to be in there with someone funny.

Jake: Yeah but you could…have fun.

Dan: I love my wife but if I was going to be in there with someone funny it would be someone like Kevin Hart or I really like Paul Rudd. That really dry, sarcastic humour. I would really want to relive that moment in Friends where him and Ross just have nothing to talk about.

Adam: Why would you ever want that?! We are SUCH boring people!

What excites you the most about the future?

Jake: I think you wanted to answer this one, do you want it or shall I answer it.

Adam: No, you picked it up.

Jake: Okay well it’s definitely the prospect of this band picking up. Even the close future coming, with the EP that we’ve just dropped. I think it will push us to where we need to go, leading to bigger stages and supporting and touring with bigger bands. That excites me. I wouldn’t want to do it without this lot.

Adam: Oh. Mine was just going to be grey hair. I’m really excited to have grey hair.  

How long does it take you to get ready?

All: *scoff*

Adam: What? I was going to say really quickly! No? In the morning I’m like 10 minutes.

Dan: It’s the time that you decide to get ready I guess. So you get ready quickly but you decide to get ready at the time you’re supposed to be at the place. So if you’re supposed to be somewhere at 6 you’ll start getting ready at 6.  

Adam: That’s true. I was late today. I actually went home before I came here.

Dan: I knew you would.

US or UK?

Jacob: Oh it’s got to be UK. All day long. I meant the US is a nice place but…

Have you ever had nightmares because of a film you saw?

Dan: Yeah, I actually had nightmares after The Grudge because of that creepy noise they make. I had a dream that there were kids making that noise and it was horrible.

Adam: I didn’t like changing rooms after I saw that film. You know how the clothes are hung up, and the guys just looking at them, and then they turn into her!

Who was the last person to make you laugh?

Jake: Sitting on my left. Literally, Adam is the funniest person ever. It’s just his face, his expressions.

Jacob: It’s something pretty spectacular.

Jake: You’re something special mate.  

Who’s the last person on earth you would want to be stuck in a lift with?

Adam: Erm. Paul Rudd. Because it sounds SO boring. Honestly, Jennifer Lawrence. She’s so whiny! I can’t watch The Hunger Games anymore. Yeah. Sorry. 

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Buy Epilogue here.