Truck Festival
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Truck Festival | |
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| Location(s) | Steventon, nr. Oxford, England |
| Years active | 1998- present |
| Date(s) | 3rd weekend of July (2 days) |
| Genre(s) | Rock, Indie |
| Website | |
Truck Festival is an annual music festival in Oxfordshire, England. It was started in 1998 by the Bennett family, who decided that mainstream festivals such as Glastonbury had become too commercial and predictable. It is held in July at Hill Farm in Steventon, near Abingdon. The main stage is constructed from two large trucks, which gives the festival its name. The festival also gave birth to the Truck Records label in 1999.
Truck has grown somewhat since its inception, but with an annual attendance of around 5,000 it is dwarfed by the likes of Glastonbury (around 150,000 people) and Reading/Leeds. Part of Truck's appeal for fans is that it can be viewed as a microcosm of these larger festivals, with a similar layout and facilities but on a more manageable scale. Due to a variety of factors, chiefly the layout of Hill Farm, it is highly unlikely that Truck has any potential for significant growth in the near future.
Hill Farm remains very much a working farm, shutting down only temporarily to allow the festival to take place each year. One of Truck's six stages is the so-called "Barn That Cannot Be Named" — a cow-shed with a stage set up at one end — which, despite the rich smell of manure, remains an ever-popular place to watch bands at the festival. The Barn mainly plays host to metal, emo, hardcore and punk acts during the day, then on Saturday evening turns into a drum and bass arena, returning to its rock incarnation on Sunday.
Other stages include Trailer Park, a marquee in the main arena which features the more esoteric indie bands during the day, and breakbeats on Saturday night; the Pressure Drop Lounge, another marquee which specialises in more ambient and chilled performances during the day, and trance during the night; the acoustic tent, which is set at a distance from the main arena and features mainly folk-oriented music, becoming a retro disco/karaoke venue on Saturday night; and the theatre tent, which hosts theatrical performances and stand-up comedy along with performance art.
The festival prides itself on its family atmosphere, with all of the site services being provided by local groups: the food stall is run by the local Rotary Club, and ice cream is sold by the local vicar. All profits from the festival go to charity.
[edit] Truck 8
In 2005 the event took place on the July 23-24 and was headlined on Saturday night by Biffy Clyro and on Sunday by The Magic Numbers. Other acts near the top of the bill included The Raveonettes, MC Lars, Do Me Bad Things and Goldrush.
[edit] Truck Nine
The 2006 festival took place on July 22-23. Tickets went on sale online from March 1 and sold out in a record eight days, although to safeguard against complaints from locals that outsiders were taking over a small, local event, tickets were also available from February 1 at just eight Oxfordshire shops.
The headlining acts were The Futureheads on Saturday and Mystery Jets on Sunday. Other acts near the top of the bill included Hundred Reasons, ¡Forward, Russia!, Goldrush, Brakes, MC Lars, Skindred and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly (Saturday); and Regina Spektor, The Young Knives, Seth Lakeman, The Electric Soft Parade, Buck 65 and Chicks On Speed (Sunday).
BBC 6 Music covered the festival for the first time, with Marc Riley and Andrew Collins among those in attendance. Truck Nine also abandoned the traditional early finish on Sunday night by allowing camping over two nights.
