When: 22nd – 24th July 2022
Where: Hill Farm, Steventon, Oxfordshire
Like most other festivals it’s been three years since Truck was last in a field in Oxfordshire. It’s a festival that has come a long way since the days of stages in cow sheds and its original main stage: the trailer of a huge truck. But enough of the reminiscing, Truck Festival 2022 is going to be huge. It’s a belated 25th-anniversary edition as well, so expect some mention of that along the way.
With a line-up full of the best up-and-coming indie acts, as well as some hidden gems, let’s have a look at who you really need to check out over the weekend.
The headliners
Now it’s usually too easy to start with the headliners as they’re most likely the acts everyone knows and will have an opinion on, but… yes there’s a but. This year, half of the headliners have a real intrigue about them – and for different reasons. On Saturday night Sam Fender takes over the Main Stage, and coming off the back of his star-making turn at Glastonbury and his own huge gig in Finsbury Park it’ll be fascinating to see how he handles the crowd. With his really excellent Seventeen Going Under placing him at the upper echelons of commercial indie, he’s actually got far more depth to his music and lyrics than anyone before him for a long time. It’s easy to see this headlining set as his last step on the ladder to headlining something like Reading & Leeds Festival next year.
The fading stars to Fender’s shooting star are Kasabian. Sans Tom Meighan they’re having to rebuild their reputation somewhat. As a band they’ve always been in their element live and in Serge Pizzorno they’ve a natural showman to front Kasabian 2.0. The old tunes are still there and a new album is incoming so their festival round of 2022 will be a good indicator of their potential to reach their previous heights of headlining the biggest festivals.
The trendy indies
Palace. Yard Act. Sea Girls. Sports Team. Inhaler. It’s a feast of the most popular “serious” indie bands of the ’20s. Sitting third on the Main Stage bill Sea Girls, Sports Team, and Inhaler all have a lot riding on their festival performances this year. Of the three Inhaler have the sound that has the potential to go further up the bill, not only do they have the rock credentials (It’s Bono’s kid, innit), they have the most commercial sound. Yard Act have the most critical credibility and have an early afternoon slot devoid of much competition so are likely to draw a crowd.
Sigrid
The Norweigan pop singer is an energetic stage presence and has some cracking pop songs across her two albums. Sigrid‘s a slightly strange fit in amongst the indie bands on the Main Stage but new songs (from How To Let Go) like ‘Burning Bridges‘ and ‘Bad Life’ fit nicely alongside ‘Sucker Punch’ and ‘Strangers’. With a nice technique to her songwriting, hooks galore, and choruses you can sing along with she’s totally festival ready.
The Market Stage
An eclectic mix of acts are filling out the Market Stage, on Saturday indie-popper Mathilda Mann is worth catching before a terrific run of The Murder Capital and their brooding post-punk rock lead into The Big Moon‘s catchy indie-rock and critical darlings Shame headline opposite the Main Stage’s Fender-fest. On Sunday the brilliant Orla Gartland will be playing songs from her wonderful Woman on the Internet album, before everyone’s favourite Eurovision 2022 runner-up Sam Ryder leads the Truck crowd into Palace as they face off against Kasabian.
Random acts of Truckness
Among the myriad of choice, and don’t forget the Rocking Chair Comedy stage, here are a quickfire list of the final acts you really need to check out… Alfie Templeman‘s quirky indie-pop is perfect for summer and will really shine on a balmy Sunday evening. Fonda 500 are a Truck mainstay and are an awesome live band; what more do you need to know than that?
Another of 2022’s trending acts is Peaness who top the V&V stage on Friday night with their indie harmonies and idiosyncratic songs. South African Baby Queen has been given a late afternoon slot to showcase her alternative and incisive take on pop. Finally, Easy Life are subbing the Main Stage on Sunday and their matter-of-fact lyrical approach is a modern take on the kind of music The Streets were breaking ground with 20 year ago.
Tickets for Truck Festival sold out months ago but you can check out all the details on their website. If you’re heading to their Oxfordshire field then we’ll see you there.
Main image: Francisco Augusto
