When: 24-27 July 2025
Where: Hill Farm, Oxfordshire, England
When Truck Festival first started, back in 1998, it consisted of three flatbed trucks as the main stage. The festival proved such a success that it spawned the fantastic Truck Records independent record shop in Oxford and the festival has now grown to seven stages and an audience of around 25,000. Despite the growth there is still plenty of focus on local music with a number of influential local bands, such as the recently reformed Unbelievable Truth and a great Sunday set from Samurai Seven.
This year’s festival sees the usual mixture of up-and-coming artists and big names, many of whom have played the festival a number of times in their past. Thursday night sees a blistering headline set from Bloc Party who deliver much of their twenty-year old Silent Alarm album embellished with other tracks drawing from their career. It’s the opening night of the festival and sees a decent sized crowd but things are just warming up and Bloc Party are, in effect, just a warm-up for the rest of the weekend.
Friday sees the crowds grow as huge swathes of teenagers arrive for what has become an almost ‘rights-of-passage’ festival experience for 16-18 year olds in and around Oxfordshire. Musical highlights come in the form of The Reytons, The Blossoms, Lambrini Girls and headliners Nothing But Flowers. This is guitar indie-rock at its best. It is note-worthy that many of the festival headliners burst out of the early 00’s indie sleaze-rock scene yet the huge contingent of teenagers seem to know every word.
Saturday sees the inevitable set from Scouting for Girls who seem to play every festival within 100miles of Oxford, and pretty much the same set each time. As a complete culture clash we head to the Market Stage to catch the irreverent energy of Irish band The Cardinals who deliver the energy and passion of a young Fontaines D.C. with tracks like ‘If I Could Make You Care’ and ‘Roseland’. For the lovers of Oxfordshire music, the V&V stage has a brilliant afternoon featuring the like of the Max Blanjaar and the riotous tunes of Arthur Turner’s Lovechild?
Meanwhile, the main stage offers the hugely entertaining and resplendent CMAT, an artist who has truly found her place in the last couple of years. CMAT is no stranger to festivals but has perfected a set of emotionally literate and inspired tracks such as ‘Take a Sexy Picture’ and ‘Stay for Something’ to win over an ever-growing audience. The set may be short but is perfect for a Saturday afternoon with a beer in the sun and the crowd love every minute. Countering the pop sensibilities comes Wunderhorse, who seem to have arrived via a tide of Tik-Tok clips and a great merch strategy – there must be more Wunderhorse t-shirts than any other band at Truck. The English band deliver a rapturously received set, without any frills, just delivering solid tracks from across their two albums to an audience who lap up every minute of it.
The Last Dinner Party show why they have become so successful with a set drawn heavily from their stunning gothic-themed debut album. Singer, Abigail Morris, floats across the stage and photo pit in her flowing lace outfit, bringing Stevie Nicks to mind. Recent single ‘This is the Killer Speaking’ is warmly received, with its darker themes coming over like a Nick Cave-inspired Western song. Their humanitarian focus on raising funds for Palestinians is, surprisingly, one of the few references to global events across the weekend but is well received and inspiring to see artists use their voices to address wider issues. Predictability their set ends with the euphoric single ‘Nothing Matters’ leaving the crowd in no doubt that The Last Dinner Party were no one-album wonder.
Saturday headliners, Kasabian, have been around the block and know how to deliver a headline set. The band pay tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, with a pre-stage sing-a-long of ‘Paranoid’, oddly blending into ‘Hey Jude’, and despite losing their singer back in 2020 the band sound solid with vocals now taken by Sergio Pizzorno, songwriter and lyricist. With seven albums of assured material behind them the band pull together a greatest hits set with intensity and swagger. Early on they despatch ‘Club Foot’ and ‘LSF’ to rapturous response. Their mix of rock and dance is most apparent on the likes of ‘Treat’, with a sample from Faithless’s ‘Insomnia.’ Sergio prowls the stage and photo pit as if he’s always been the front man, an almost Gallagher-esque character without the gobbing off. The bands impeccable set ends with a mesmerizing ‘Fire’ sending the audience away to the club and DJ sets that take off after dark.
Sunday sees many in the audience nursing their heads and bodies and energy levels are notably lower. As has become tradition the afternoon starts with the Oxford Symphony Orchestra before the likes of Lime Garden, Natasha Bedingfield, who performs an unexpectedly awesome version of Portishead’s ‘Glory Box’, and Maximo Park take to the main stage.
Festival organisers have taken the admiral decision to show the Women’s Euro-final around the site, to huge cheers, impacting the crowd size for most of the late afternoon/early evening acts. This also conjures up one of those unwinnable festival clashes – The Unbelievable Truth vs Franz Ferdinand vs the England penalty shootout! Thankfully just the right spot at local legends The Unbelievable Truth set allows the crowd to focus on the band whilst catching penalties on the large screen. Sadly, the screens have a two-minute delay meaning even more anguish as Franz Ferdinand announce the result before we’d had the chance to see it with our own eyes.
With flagging energy, and a Euro final, each act has to work hard to bring the crowd to its feet but thankfully Franz Ferdinand, bizarrely not the headliners, rally life from the audience with their angular guitar riffs and a set of stone-cold classics. Alex Kapranos has the crowd in the palm of his hand, including thankfully encouraging the crowd to put their phones away and just live in the moment, and holds them there tightly through the band’s, all too short, one hour set culminating with a huge version of ‘This Fire’.
One of the joys of any decent festival is the stumbling across the unexpected in some small tent. Over the weekend much of the small V&V tent has been given over to Oxfordshire bands and this continues into Sunday night with a rousing Allstar Tribute to Bob Dylan. An alternating line-up sees the likes of Danny George Wilson, Trevor Moss and Hannah-Lou, and Robin Bennet, festival co-founder and singer with The Dreaming Spires, tackle familiar Dylan songs such as ‘My Back Pages’ and ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, complete with Dylan cue-cards. The set sticks to the most familiar Dylan material but is performed with such love and energy that nothing else is needed.
The closing festival set comes from Manchester’s Courteeners who deliver a tight hit-loaded set. Throwing in an acoustic cover of ‘It Must Be Love’ mid-way mixes up the tempo but with a dwindling crowd the energy begins to dwindle before their closing ‘Not Nineteen Forever’. The festival closes with a short but entertaining fireworks display as we trudge our way back to tents and cars. We’ve been blessed with good weather and an abundance of great music once again. Truck Festival ends as a triumph!
(Slideshow photos by Chloe Hashlemi)
