What I learnt at Truck Festival
Nestled in the Oxford shire hills Truck Festival is a small, friendly festival showcasing the best acts from the alternative and indie genre. Orange sent its artist relations rep Daniel to check out the sights and sounds of this festival and come back with his best things from the festival:
The Site
This was the first time I have graced the Truck Festival site and was struck by its friendly and helpful staff. Not only this but the layout was really easy to navigate, with plenty of room on site without anything feeling too far away. The giant Truck letters that were pretty much bang in the centre of the main arena become a easy meeting point.
The Nest
If you want to find out the best new music then The Nest stage is where to look at Truck Festival, across the weekend it played host to such great new bands as Yonaka, Anteros, and Inhaler. I managed to catch Anteros set which had the tent packed out, the band played tracks from their debut album ‘When we land’. Their mixture of faced paced pop indie songs were the perfect soundtrack in the unusually sunny English weather.
Idles
The band’s set was the first of four sets over the next two days, which include other festivals such as Y Not. The band have had a whirlwind 2 years and it doesn’t seem like it will stop anytime soon, the main stage was packed for their 2 o’clock set. Opening with the bombastic sound of Heel/Heal the band rattled through an hour long set in front of a packed main stage. The band were greeted like hero’s with smoke bombs going off and the crowd singing back every word, the single ‘Danny Nedelko’ was a particular highlight.
So Many Bands!
Something I was so impressed with was the breadth of bands that were on the bill, especially the different types and size of bands. The Oxford Sympony Orchestra opened up the main stage on the Saturday, the crowd created a circle pit and a chant of ‘cello, cello’ erupted throughout the set. Public Service Broadcasting closed the second stage to a packed crowd and Mr Motivator opened up the Main stage on Sunday! It just shows how much there is to do at Truck Festival, I never thought with Orange I would get to meet Mr Motivator!
The Weather
Being in the U.K. we have got completely used to festivals being a wash out, if you don’t take a full set of water proof equipment then you are going to be in trouble. But no need for Truck Festival, the weather, other than a bit of rain on Saturday morning was bliss, even maybe a little too good. The amount of sunburn seen on Friday from Thursday’s temperatures of 38C was very apparent, most visitors had a lobster pink hue but we shouldn’t complain, give 38C every year for every festival!
Foals
Finally I have to mention Foals headlining on Saturday night, the Oxford locals came home to destroy the main stage. This year has been a big year for the band as they are releasing two albums, ‘Everything not saved will be lost – Part 1’ has been nominated for a Mercury prize and the second part will be released in October. The band open with ‘On the Luna’ from the new album and then proceed to play a career spanning set, which includes old favourites such as ‘Olympic Airways’ and the rarely played ‘Hummer’. It’s a perfect end to the Saturday night and judging by the crowds reaction to the encore with flares and smoke bombs going off Foals have smashed their homecoming!
