Amelia’s Magazine | Truck Festival 2011

Category: Music

Truck festival logo
Truck Festival returns once more for it's 14th independent year, bringing you loads of great music in the heart of the Oxfordshire countryside. Expect fantastic performances from Gruff Rhys, Bellowhead, Graham Coxon, Young Knives, The Go! Team, Johnny Flynn, Tunng, Dry The River, Pete Molinari, Alessi's Ark, Sea of Bees, Mechanical Bride, Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou, Chad Valley and Electric Soft Parade. It's a veritable smorgasbord of bands loved by Amelia's Magazine. And I think I might just wet my pants in the knowledge that three of my favourite record labels, Transgressive Records, Heavenly Recordings and Bella Union, will be curating the new Clash stage.

Truck Festival stage
Truck crowd
Following on from the success of sister festival Wood (see my review here) Truck will also host a Wood Field, aimed at bringing a little bit of the Wood Festival magic to Hill Farm in Steventon. This area will be home to the family camping area, the kids tent, workshops for all ages, green initiatives and will be centred around the Wood Stage, programmed by the Oxford Folk Festival. This will be an excellent chance to take in wonderful new folk musicians such as Benjamin Francis Leftwich who I am personally very excited about seeing.

Truck festival
In another development the director of the Oxford Playhouse visited Truck for the first time last year and liked it so much she asked to be involved this year. The Oxford Playhouse will be staging an outdoor production of The Secret Garden by Toby Hulse and the Roustabout Theatre – youngsters and families will be invited to reach the garden through a secret door behind which they will take part in an interactive muddy adventure. There will also be a continuous performance of Etiquette in the cafe and twice daily productions of One Small Step. The play, by David Hastings, magically conjures dozens of characters with the aid of simple household objects. Fast, furious and really rather funny, this superb show has been around the world and back again, collecting rave reviews en route.

Once again Paddy Luscombe will be producing the comedy and The Long Insiders’ Cabaret A-Go-Go arrives for the first time at Truck with a blast of rocking music and sizzling burlesque.

Truck Festival guitar
Last time I went to Truck (six, yes SIX years ago, my lord) there was nothing like this assortment of exciting goings ons – just some brilliant bands. Now there's a stellar line up…. and so much more. A full weekend ticket is a measly £99 – what on earth is stopping you from joining in the fun?

Plus there will be a chance to track down the very popular Truck Monster… read my interview with Truck founder Robin Bennett here and our review of Truck Festival 2010 and find the Truck Festival website here.

Truck America
ALSO, exciting news just announced today: for those of you on the East Coast of America, Truck will be returning for Truck America II at the Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, NY from September 9th to 11th 2011. The Hold Steady, Okkervil River, Ra Ra Riot and Wye Oak are just a few of the festival's headliners with 30+ more bands and comedians to be announced in the upcoming weeks. Get tickets here.