Haunt the Woods at Midsummer Prog Festival 2025 – day 2 (May 24)

Haunt The Woods – Intimate and Intense Above the Crowd

Halfway through the second day of the festival while  rain was pouring down on the roof, the performance by Haunt The Woods offered a welcome indoor break. Instead of a traditional stage, the four band members were positioned on an elevated balcony in the corner of the large factory hall of Muziekgieterij. It was a unique setting: raw brick walls, exposed pipes, a skylight roof filtering the daylight  and  beams overhead. It gave their show an intimate vibe. 

Haunt The Woods is a British band from the southwest of England, built around singer and guitarist Jonathan Stafford. With their debut album Opaque (2020), they already proved that they’re not easily boxed into a single genre. Their music drifts between progressive rock, acoustic folk, alternative pop, and post-rock-like tension arcs. Attentive listeners may hear echoes of bands like Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, Ben Howard, and indeed, Gazpacho — especially in the way they emphasize melody and atmosphere, preferring slow tension-building over immediate climaxes. Stafford’s emotionally charged vocals form the beating heart of the sound: fragile and intimate in quieter moments, raw and soaring when the music demands it. It’s the kind of music that doesn’t force itself upon you, but rather seeps in and lingers.

The music suited the unusual location remarkably well. Over the course of a tight half-hour set, the band delivered a blend of fragility and power. Their sound — a mix of alternative rock, melancholic folk and post-prog textures — thrived in this stripped-down environment: no spectacle, no show, just sound and voice cutting straight through.

One of the highlights was “Ubiquity”: soft, layered and carried by an emotive vocal line. In this industrial setting  this  song gained an extra sense of introspection — like a solitary thought echoing off the brick walls.

In contrast, “Elephant” brought a heavier tone that didn’t lose any of its force, despite the more acoustic-feeling atmosphere. With a tight rhythm and dragging guitar lines, the band slowly built up to an intense finale. The contrast between the restrained performance and the underlying force gave the track a charged brooding tension that resonated well with the attentive audience below.

Haunt The Woods proved that you don’t need a big stage or visual effects to make a lasting impression. With just their instruments, their voices  and a unique spot above the crowd in that industrial hall, they held everyone’s attention for a good thirty minutes — while the rain outside kept pouring without pause.