With the fire still burning in the cauldron that was the Optimo 25 celebrations in Glasgow just a few short weeks ago,Watching Trees – the combined dream world of Optimo (Espacio), Ransom Note, close friends and allies – announce the full line-up (give or take) for their inaugural year in 2022.
“We’re quite spread out as a group of friends. We live in different places and we do many different things. We are artists, DJs, producers, writers, designers, makers, activists, farmers, engineers, ravers, DIYers who all love music. If we think about it, the majority of the time we’ve spent together has been in fields or by the sea at music events and there we’d always talk about our dreams of kicking off something together. Something that would incorporate our ideas of what a festival can be for the people who come. How their collective experience of being somewhere different, away from it all and with music, can be enriched. “Unity”, we guess and the joy that brings to us as humans is a good enough reason to do something like this. We’re driven by the strong belief that music has this power to unite and that’s in the soul of what we’re going to do with the first edition of Watching Trees.” Optimo
Celebrating in the Backwoods of the Forest of Dean amongst the rolling hills and woodlands of the Awre District, Watching Trees aims to collectively create a vision of an ideal weekend. And with that ideal weekend in mind, they announce the lineup for that vision:
“Our line-up is a joyful patchwork of artists close to us and some we’ve admired from afar. We’ve ignored borders in music and followed our hearts. With limited funds this year – because we’re just 500 people – we’ve managed a line-up that feels immense to us. We’re eternally grateful to the artists who agreed to be part of this. We hope many of them will return year on year.” Optimo.
There’s an Optimo 25 compilation to follow later in the year “celebrating some of the music that has defined our story” and much more to be announced for Watching Trees. Tickets are now on sale.
“It’s been 15 years since my first Optimo (Espacio) baptism on Jamaica Street and my Glasgow years of hardcore boogying with Keith and Jonnie have never ceased to inspire me ever since. From that day forth our friendship has grown like one of those solid trees we’ll be dancing under at the festival. I’m psyched to be a part of this first edition’s lineup and cannot wait to bang the box until the music stops ❤️” Fantastic Twins
“Who else than Keith & Jonnie, eternal kidulthood heroes could have named a festival after one of my fave end of nighters. Some will moan about another “boutique festival” but that awful term doesn’t really fit here. This is just about music and nothing else, people raving in a field. Raving with accurate taste but still raving. I’ll be playing back-to-back with Budino. Seemed like a good place for the first time. See you under the trees, looking up at the sky.” Ivan Smagghe
I want to be, in a tree
Watching you, watching trees
Memories of the trees
Watching you, watching trees
“We couldn’t think of a better celebration than spending a weekend in an incredibly beautiful place with a load of our favourite people on the planet.” Optimo