Truck has a local village vibe that sticks close to its roots

Truck Festival took place at Hill Farm in the village of Steventon in Oxfordshire. This year, the festival is in its 16th year, and it has everything you could want in a festival! Imagine that you mix together some good music, a measure of individuality, and a lovely site, with some lovely people and a party atmosphere and you are on to a winner– and you only pay a very reasonable price for this weekend of fun!

The festival has had some hard times and thanks to some dedication, some innovative thinking, and a determination to stick to what it’s good at, it stays with us. The programme promised that it was growing up as a festival and experimenting with some new things. And, it kept its promise on lots of levels; there were some new music venues with some exciting musical combinations, and some new acts that I reckon we’ll be hearing more of in the very near future.

Music:

We have come to expect musically amazing things from Truck – many of the tunes that see us through the winter months come from acts that we have seen there. One of the really exciting things about this festival is its ability to attract top quality new acts. So, we always arrive knowing that we’ll find something truly new and exciting!

From experience, I normally find two new acts at a festival that I want to hear more of. This year at Truck is no exception. My first “Wow” moment of the weekend came from arriving at the start of the Patrick Wolf set on the Friday evening at the Market Stage. He clearly had quite a following (I definitely heard two very excited ladies bellowing "We love you Patrick") and he played the kind of music that gets into your very core and comes out of your feet.

My second act that I take away from Truck 2013 is Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip. Seeing their set was reasonably accidental – we'd been in the Veterans and Virgins stage when the bass coming from the Market Stage started tugging at me and I reckoned it was worth a look. The Dan le Sac set got right into our soul, then came exploding out of the top of our heads and the Market Stage and its surrounding area were full of people who managed to find some energy from somewhere after another hot day and dance like mad things!

Although these two were my 'take away with me' acts, there was plenty more who had us up and dancing over the weekend. There is so much going on over the two days, it's hard to know where to start. I was rather taken with Royal Republic – a rock band from Sweden. From the write up in the programme, I would normally have thought that they wouldn't be my cup of tea. However, we stayed for a bit to see what they are about and ended up thoroughly enjoying their whole set; they were clearly having a brilliant time, and combined some great tunes with a great stage presence.

Sam Duckworth we are already familiar with from previous Truck festivals and he delivers the perfect kind of set for the time of day with the Barry Horns brass band and the Rumour Cubes with Annie Rew Shaw on vocals.

One of my personal highlights of the weekend was seeing Danny George Wilson's set in the merchandise tent on Friday evening. We first became acquainted with Danny and the Champions of the World at Truck 2008 and his music has been in our car ever since. He even played 'Henry the Van' by request for my husband!

We manage to catch most of the two headline acts. I don't think The Horrors get the crowd that they would have hoped for but there is so much going on at Truck with some other top acts going on elsewhere, it's easy to get distracted.

The line-up is so packed that inevitably there are some acts we have to miss who we had wanted to see such as Public Service Broadcasting. They play their music to the accompaniment of those public service announcements of yester year. They come heavily praised and I can only recommend, by proxy, that if you have the chance to see them, you should take it.

Stages

For 2013, the festival organisers have introduced some interesting new venues. And, there are some new 'goings on' at the already well-established venues. The main Truck Stage continues to deliver some amazing acts, but my own personal favourite acts again come from the Market Stage.

New for this year was the Veterans and Virgins stage which is near the Market Stage. The idea behind this new stage is to provide a venue for Truck acts past and future, and it promises an exciting line up. Although it's handy being able to hop from one stage to the other so easily, the hot weather meant that lots of people want to sit outside and if both stages have acts on at the same time, the sounds clashed badly.

Another new and successful venue this year was the Great Western Whiskey Saloon Bar. In keeping with this year's Wild West fancy dress theme, there was an authentic-looking Saloon Bar where we could listen to some excellent music while sitting comfortably in the cool supping a drink. I hope that the Saloon Bar is a permanent fixture as it had a really good atmosphere and some great acts and people were crammed outside it on many occasions trying to catch some of what was going on inside. It meant that those lucky enough to be inside felt they were seeing an almost private set.

I love the idea of the Jamalot stage but I find it a bit sad that it stays empty for a lot of the daytime which seems a shame as much of the music we hear coming out of there seems really good. It is clearly an excellent late night party venue.

And lastly, The Barn. A rather fragrant venue this year, but it played a fine host to some fine acts such as Wet Nuns (one of my husband's favourite acts of the weekend) over the two days. And on the Saturday, it was transformed into the CopacaBarna – a sandy beach with old-fashioned deckchairs.

Kids

Our two children enjoy Truck – it's not hard work for them and there are lots of activities for them to take part in. The majority of the organised action for them takes place near the Market Stage which I always think is a smart move on the part of festival organisers. Keeping the children happy and occupied is all important to ensure that the parents get to see the music. There is even a toddler soft play area with soft toys where the real littlies can play safely and the ability to hire covered wagon-style trolleys to ferry them round in.

On reflection, there did seem to be a bit less for ours to do this year, and our 12 year old struggled a bit for activities targeted at his age group. However, we loved joining in the follow-my-leader antics lead by the Awkward Actors (a conga line of people following random people and copying their moves along the line until they are spotted and have to move on to the next). And we were kept happily entertained for quite a while watching the Under Construction Theatre 'Bureau of Silly Sports' who engaged us in silly activities such as 'Broom Hockey' and 'The Lap of Silly Walks'.

The highlight of the younger children's entertainment for the weekend is the show put on by the Oxford Playhouse called 'Tea Time'; a captivatingly silly show that tells the story of Emily and Josie and their tea. The tent run by the Oxford Playhouse contains lots of other activities for the children to just 'chill out' including free cups of squash, colouring, and books and a quiet area to relax – a real haven from a very warm weekend.

Refreshments

The concept of food at Truck is somewhat different to other festivals. The local Rotary Club from Didcot work tirelessly all weekend to cook up traditional festival food, the profit from which is ploughed in to the community and other good causes. All the food is reasonably priced and it's nice to think that we are helping to raise money while we have fun.

This year, the organisers of the Truck festival have taken the notion of supporting local food suppliers a stage further by introducing a Food Hall that contains food stalls run by local suppliers who serve us with the delights of Ploughmans, pizza, veggie salad boxes, soups, and noodles, and even sushi! There was lots of fresh fruit salad, granola pots, smoothies, iced coffee, and local ice cream on offer too for those of us who found it was simply too hot to eat much in the daytime.

To wash all this lovely food down, there were some excellent wines, beers and ciders on tap at the bar. The bar tariff is very reasonable at £3.80 a pint of ale and the choice is good quality (we liked Jester ale in particular), but we could also buy cans of lager.

Had we been in a cocktail-drinking frame of mind, they were available from two specialist bars in the main arena and near the market stage. The cocktail bar in the main arena was housed in a desert island style beach scene complete with sand which kept lots of mini Truckers happy!

For our younger members, the smoothies were a real hit and priced at an amazing £1.00!

Camping and facilities

We were staying in the camper van field, and I'm not sure whether it was a conscious decision borne from a necessity that made the vans pitch up around the edge of the field or just "one of those things that happened on the day." It meant that the van field did lose something of the community aspect that we had enjoyed in previous years as we were effectively camped around a car park and it was a mighty long walk to the nearest loo from the far side of the field! However, we spend only a short amount of time at the van during a festival so it didn't really detract from our overall enjoyment!

It could be a sign of the austere times that we live in that no bin bags were given out on arrival to the live-in vehicles but it was nice to see that the van field was relatively litter free and ready for the return of the cows (and bulls) on Sunday. The General Camping field didn't get on so well and was pretty littered when I saw it, even with the provision of clearly-marked litter points.

At some point we have to come to the subject of loos – the programme told us that the organisers wanted the cleanest loos ever and I'd say they did pretty well, even in the main arena. Better lighting over the loos at the arena would probably help though!

Conclusion

Truck is a festival that has managed to retain its individuality over the years and it combines a winning line-up with a local village vibe that sticks close to its roots of a party for friends. It represents exceptionally good value for money, and is always a guaranteed success. We already have it highlighted in our 2014 festival calendar!

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