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Festival Reviews
Festival Review: Truck Festival 2010
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 2 August 2010
I did it. I finally found the holy grail of the festival trail. You know, the elusive one where you can bring your own food and drink into the arena, without having to hide it in your wellies. Impressed? Well ladies and gentlemen, this particular gift from the gods can be found in rural Oxfordshire on a real life working farm that annually houses Truck Festival.
Ironically, Truck is also one of the few festivals where it wouldn’t actually be the end of the world if you did have to pay the arena prices for food and drink – with Jager bombs and fresh pasta selling for a comparatively measly £3 a piece and the usual beer and burger fare at very reasonable prices. Taking this into consideration, it wouldn’t break the bank to take the whole family for the weekend – nor would you feel out of place as Truck comes across as very much a family-orientated event, complete with a kids tent, relaxed friendly atmosphere and tiny layout.
Once I got over the shock/excitement of the food and drink revelation, I kicked off my festival with something of a local hero for me, Kingston favourite Dave House, who played a crowd pleasing acoustic set of honest and uplifting indie/punk to an eager audience at the Market Stage. Other treats of the day included indie-rock four piece Tellison who played in the appropriately named Barn, certainly an advocate for authenticity (and my nostrils can testify to that) as the shed is literally home to bovine for the rest of the year. Boat To Row also impressed in the Village Pub venue with their likable twiddly folk.
The only disappointment of the day came from the queues outside the Barn which lead to missing the much anticipated 65daysofstatic. Much confusion surrounded this, as seemingly there was lots of room inside but, due to health and safety regulations, a lot of people had to miss out.
Day two, another searingly warm day created the perfect scene for the sunny Los Campesinos!, who set the main stage alight (metaphorically speaking, of course). This is also where I witnessed Surreal Moment #1: the most bizarre attempt at a mosh pit, made up of a handful of sweaty and confused teenagers and overseen by even more confused security guards.
Taking a break from the music to peruse the stalls which offered the usual hippyish attire and faux body art, what really caught my eye was the old-fashioned ice cream stand which, sadly, and as testimony to the sweltering weather, had been completely ransacked by the time I got there.
Sunday was the heavier day music wise, especially in the Barn, with notable performances from Future Of The Left, who I can only describe as alternative noise sparring with melodic rock. Their music combined with comedic banter made them a real joy to watch.
Headlining the by now almost oppressively fragrant Barn were Canada’s hardcore sextet Fucked Up. And never has a name been more befitting. Charismatic (read: delightfully insane) frontman Pink Eyes stormed the stage, and the floor, in a blur of circle pits, leading to Surreal Moment #2 (and admittedly a personal highlight for me) when the Fucked Up leader stopped in front of me and demanded a high five whilst bleeding profusely from the forehead…
Everyone left the show with a satisfied smile, which I think sums up the festival justifiably – friendly, still somehow niche and with a great range of acts. Just not enough ice cream! SK
