By Grace Greenwood
With post-festival blues hitting hard, let’s take a look back at LSTV’s unforgettable weekend at Truck Festival 2023!
Friday
After an exploding beer can mishap at Victoria Station, we finally made it onto our coach and began the 2-hour journey to Oxford. Once we arrived we bagged ourselves a prime camping spot, set up camp and headed straight to the arena!
As soon as we entered we stumbled across the Market Stage and decided to head inside. Here we found ‘Red Rum Club’ performing, who we personally had not heard of, but have since been added to all of our Spotify playlists! Starting our weekend with a bang, these guys brought the good vibes, with crowd favourites being “Would You Rather Be Lonely?” and “Eleanor.” Red Rum Club are soon to be supporting ‘The Wombats’ on their US tour and are definitely worth a listen!
Whilst at Red Rum Club we befriended emerging band ‘South Arcade’ in the crowd by helping them distribute their stickers (but let’s come back to them later…)
After this, we headed to the first act on our list, Eurovision’s very own ‘Mae Muller.’ Not only were her songs a huge hit, the crowd were also kept entertained by Mae’s bubbly personality and humour throughout. Mae really spoiled us by playing both an unreleased song, as well as her own cover of ABBA’s “SOS” (what more could we ask for!!)
A quick toilet and drink break and we were ready to return to the main stage to sing “Foundations” at the top of our lungs with ‘Kate Nash.’ The vibes were unmatched and she had the whole crowd jumping up and down (it really was ICONIC!)
We then headed back to camp for a well-needed rest before the exciting night ahead of us. Our first act of the evening were indie icons ‘The Vaccines,’ who blessed Truck Festival with their hit songs “If You Wanna” and “Post Break-Up Sex” which had the whole crowd dancing (mosh pits included).
‘Two Door Cinema Club’ were Friday’s headliners on the Main Stage, and they did not disappoint. Having first appeared at Truck Festival in 2009 as emerging artists, it was incredible to see how far this band have come. Their iconic hits “What You Know” and “Undercover Martyn” attracted a huge crowd and we had the best time.
We quickly left before the end of Two Door Cinema Club to go and support our new friends ‘South Arcade.’ They’ve perfectly managed to recreate an early 2000s teen rock band and their set was so effortlessly cool and fun to be a part of (make sure you check out our interview with them coming soon!)
Finally, to top off our night, we headed to the ‘Palm City’ Stage to catch the legendary duo ‘Hybrid Minds’ play their iconic hit “Touch,” before heading off to bed!
Saturday
We woke up and trekked across what was now the world’s worst slip and slide in an attempt to get our morning coffee. There were a variety of tactics to not fall in the mud including the very brave choice to go barefoot…
We then headed into the arena for our first act of the day – The Oxford Symphony Orchestra. In the most British way possible, the crowd were moshing (ballet style) to the orchestra’s classical tunes…
(Photo Credit: Heather Campbell via Deadline News)
Next up, we headed to the ‘Rockin’ Chair’ stage, to catch renowned comedian Jonathon Pie work his magic. His comedic take on politics was loved by the crowd and I would definitely recommend seeing him if you get the chance!
Moving on from our morning of ballet and comedy, we headed to catch indie rock band ‘Circa Waves.’ Their song “T-Shirt Weather” was definitely the crowd favourite and had everyone dancing like there was no tomorrow.
Next up was ‘Maisie Peters,’ who recently supported ‘Ed Sheeran’ on his tour. Maisie is always incredible to watch and it definitely won’t be long before she is headlining festivals herself.
After a busy day, we returned to camp to recover before our big night ahead but sadly my glasses didn’t make it (rip)…
We kicked off our evening with the ‘DMAs’ who drew a huge crowd with even bigger mosh pits (although how everyone stayed upright on the slippery mud I’ll never know…)
Next we caught the headline act, Leeds Uni’s very own ‘Alt-J’ who performed hits “Breezeblocks” and “Left Hand Free.” It’s so inspiring to see a band that started at our own university be so successful!
Finally, we danced away the night to “Gold Dust” and “Roll the Dice” over in the Palm City Tent with ‘Shy FX,’ followed by DJ ‘Oppidan’ whose electronic tracks were a huge hit.
On our walk home we of course couldn’t resist going on the swinging chairs like the big kids we are…
Sunday
Sunday was our last full day at Truck (booooo!!!) but we made sure to make the most of it.
We started off our morning by getting some free temporary tattoos (shoutout to the Welfare tent and all their amazing volunteers we LOVE you!)
All tatted up, we headed off to see English rock band ‘Pale Waves’ steal the stage performing my personal fave “She’s My Religion.”
Next, we managed to catch the famous Colour Fight (a great idea at the time, but major regrets afterwards with no showers…)
After this, we headed back to camp to prepare for our final night ahead of us. A couple of warm ciders later and back inside the arena we all attempted our best limbo whilst trying not to fall in the mud!
After this we ran to ‘Royal Blood’ for the final headline set of the weekend, and we all felt really emotional watching such a good weekend come to a close!
To finish off the night we boogied away to legend ‘David Rodigan’s’ Reggae tunes, before heading back to camp.
Truck Fest you were amazing and we can’t wait to return next year!!
Truck Festival 2024 will be 26th - 28th July 2024. Tickets are available here: https://truckfestival.com/tickets/
