Truck Festival - Full Send Zine

With the disappointment of Glastonbury still ringing in our ears, the ever reliable Truck Festival was here to save the day. For the uninitiated, Truck is an annual event held in Steventon, Oxfordshire. It originally kicked off in 1998 and was quickly dubbed “The UK’s most warped village fête”. It is, without question, a fun-filled, four-day celebration of the best in new and established artists with a whole lot of comedy thrown in for good measure. Like its little brother down the road at 2000 Tress, it is fast becoming de rigueur for indie savvy punters of all ages (as is reflected in the line-up). What makes it feel even more special for the young musician is that chance to play their first proper festival with proper festival punters and this year was no exception with a wealth of upcoming talent.

The mighty (we can call them that again now) Idles kicked off proceedings on the Thursday evening fresh from their all-conquering display at Glastonbury. Joe and the boys are becoming THE seasoned professionals on the festival circuit and this ‘greatest hits’ (largely from Joy as an act of resistance) set with a few newbies thrown in, certainly got the festival off to the flying start that it needed. Pink hair, pink dresses and a whole lotta Joey ‘love’. ‘Colossus’ kicked things off in truly pogo-a-long style and the instantly energised chaos ensued. ‘I’m Scrum’, ‘Mother’, ‘Never fight a man with a perm’ were all greeted with glee and the oh so poignant ‘Danny Nedelko’ blew the clouds off the sky (this time without a Banksy immigrant raft floating around). Outstanding!

Earlier Sophie Ellis-Bexter had provided some aging pop princessness for people of a ‘certain age’ but what she delivered she delivered well and certainly looked to be enjoying the attention. Murder on the dancefloor is enjoying a bit of a dance floor resurgence at the moment and was greeted appreiately by the hungry audience. ‘Ready for love’ and ‘Can’t fight this feeling’ were other highlights of a confident troubadour set from someone destined to be the Sunday afternoon slot at Glastonbury (when sh’e matured enough). Mr Motivator, who was surely booked for ‘the irony of it all’ on the other hand, would best stick with his former day job. No thank you!

I would have loved to have caught Simon Brodkin, Jarred Christmas and Andrew Maxwell on the comedy stage, but, sadly there was just not enough of us to go around.

Sat in the middle of all of this was a rave party featuring Sub Focus, the majestic Born on Road, Catching Cairo and Majessty. With the other stages closing early for a festival, you either changed your mindset and ears up for something different or went back to your tent. I’m a drum and bass freak, so what can I say?

And then to the final day with Black Honey banging out album Fistful of Peaches almost in its entirety, quickly followed by 2020’s tpp for the top, The Amazons, followed by Sea Girls and a nod to the kind of back in the day fayre in the shape of the Kooks with a ‘do you remember this one?’ stylee?

Mike Skinners’ The Streets saved the day from collapsing into a heap with simply one of the best sing-along-a-ding-dong-dance-with-your-daddy-theres-whisky-in-the-jar-o sets that you ever likely to witness. The crowd were so enthusiastic he could have handed the mic to them for its entirety. He leapt around the stage like a man half his age (fit and he knows it!) ‘Who’s go the bag’ was beloved out like his likkle life depended on it it and ‘Boys will be boys’ was a rabble-rousing sure-fire pleaser. Simply, beautiful.

The sun shone for the whole weekend, we had way too much to eat and drink, made way too many friends and exchanged mobile numbers with way too many people. What an event/happening/riotous village fête. We’ll be back next year!

If Glastonbury re-invented itself as a smaller, cooler festival with smaller queues to piss and buy drinks and better music, Truck Festival would be it...