Not Thursday Night at the Bridge
It's happened to all of us. You spend a long weekend rolling in mud, dancing until your feet erode, singing and smoking until you sound like Darth Vader, and then just as you start to head homewards, convinced that life does not get better and ready to sleep for a week, some misty-eyed hippy takes it upon himself to remind you that festivals are not what they were. Go back to your tipi, hippy. You are wrong and you have not heard of Truck.
With Oxford’s reputation for eccentricity and tradition, it is hardly surprising that our flagship record label runs a festival as diverse and distinctive as Truck. It is prestigious enough to get names like The Futureheads and Youthmovies playing but manages to maintain a level of intimacy great enough to ensure that you will still find the local vicar selling ice cream. Annually held at Hill Farm, it was founded by the Bennet family in 1998, bored of mainstream commercial festivals.
Truck, named after the flatbed vehicles that provided the stage in its infancy, has steadily acquired an army of devotees, with tickets selling out in record time this year and more applications for stewardship. Musically there is broad representation — dance, acoustica, D&B, indie. The list continues, spanning several different tents, stages and barns.
While nationally successful bands do get booked for headline slots, a lot of the emphasis rests on local acts, with resident stalwarts returning year after year to play for an appreciative home crowd. These core values will always underpin the festival so whatever you are into: rave, rock or ruminating cows, Truck on.
8th Jun 2006