REVIEW: Truck Festival 2025 saw Bloc Party, Nothing But Thieves, Kasabian and Courteeners rule the roost at Hill Farm in Oxfordshire and Daily Star’s Sam Huntley was in rock heaven
Truck Festival 2025 turned a farm in Oxfordshire into a raucous indie rock party.
A lovely farm in Oxfordshire? Probably not the first place you’d expect to mosh to Kasabian hits in a raging sea of fans under a burning sky of flares. But Hill Farm isn’t like other farms. In fact, Truck prides itself on being the “the UK’s most warped village fête” – and you’ll soon see why.
Only at Truck will you catch people crowd-surfing to the Oxford Symphony Orchestra while someone in a giant green T-rex costume roams around the arena, taking selfies with festival goers. Fun fact: The first ever dinosaur fossil to be found was actually in Oxfordshire, but I digress…
We arrive at the campsite on a scorching Thursday afternoon that tests the human spirit (specifically, our ability to carry all of our festival gear). We pitch up our tents, crack open a can and soak up the festival buzz ahead of a big weekend (is there any better feeling?).
Bloc Party have occupied a special place in my heart since my school days and that How I Met Your Mother scene gets me every time. So being able to tick Bloc Party off of my gig bucket list before the weekend had even begun is huge. Bravo, Truck Festival.
They open with So Here We Are in a blistering set packed with Silent Alarm hits – Banquet, Helicopter, Hunting For Witches and Like Eating Glass, and more – to mark the album’s 20th anniversary. Singer Kele Okereke is on great form and drummer Louise Bartle steals my heart. The set flies by and they finish with This Modern Love, the thunderous ballad that I’d came for, in what was a pretty special moment for me.
But the indie party doesn’t stop there. All you need to do is duck into a nearby tent and you’ll find a DJ running the decks until the early hours. We sing our hearts out to noughties bangers inside the This Feeling tent and I risk ruining my vocal chords on Day 1 (I blame Stereophonics).
Those in search of a drum and bass or techno fix aren’t forgotten. Whatever genre you’re looking for is likely only a few hundred metres away as all of the stages are so close together.
Nothing But Thieves take the reigns on Friday and blow us away with a blistering set that begins with the thunderous bassline of Welcome to the DCC and the fierce falsetto of frontman Connor Mason. Absolutely electric. Real Love Song, with its screeching guitar lick and anthemic chorus, never fails to send shivers down my spine. Conor, a huge talent, even treats us to the band’s rendition of No Doubt’s hit Don’t Speak.
Blossoms were on before and, sadly, they didn’t fare nearly so well, thanks to a very muddy sound mix. In fairness, it probably sounded better closer to the stage, and we were stuck behind the sound engineers.
We catch some of Alfie Templeman’s set over at The Market Stage and the 22-year-old is killing it up there. A shout out to jazz/pop sensation Phoebe Rea, too, who dazzles the BBC Introducing tent with her infectious energy and cracking voice, backed by a fabulous band.
Honourable mention to the Tipsy Cow tent for delivering dangerously good times at a surprisingly early hour. Normally my night peaks when Never Too Much by Luther Vandross comes on but here, we get down to business way before the sun goes down. Seems like this oasis of pop nostalgia caught on quickly, because when we return after nightfall the place is crammed. All hail the cow of absolute intoxication.
How much for a pint, you ask? Well it’s £6.45 and £6.60 for Brewdog lager (440ml) and £6.70 for their Wingman IPA. Not cheap, but I’ve seen worse prices at British arenas and it’s roughly London prices. Spirit and mixers will set you back at least £7.50 and wine is £32.50 for a bottle (blimey).
You’ll find burgers for about £12, chips for just over a fiver, and other dishes like curry and duck wraps for £13. Plenty of veggie options too. I was impressed by the Feel Good Food Hall, a bustling charity tent which has tons of solid breakfast options available – and lighter bites like toast and crumpets for those not wanting to go too big on brekkie.
And here’s a pro-tip for those wanting to beat the queues when grabbing their morning coffee – head inside the arena. It’s super quiet in the morning so it’s the perfect time to check out the stalls – and there’s a decent offering of vintage garments for the fashionistas out there.
Saturday sees rowdy kings Kasabian take the throne and unleash their campaign of indie rock chaos on the crowd. Up go the flares and everyone goes feral when the chorus of Fire erupts. Thousands of us bouncing together and belting out our favourite songs; this is British festival season in all of its beer-soaked glory.
It was an extra-special day for me, though, as one of my best friends happened to be DJing in The Tap Room just hours before. Hailing from Lancashire, disco house DJ Kate Whitaker blends golden era disco with rousing house anthems and funky mixes.
She’s a natural! It doesn’t take long for her to get us grooving (we didn’t stop) and she packs out the tent with punters, which is great to see. You’ll find me pictured with said talented friend above!
Before that, Scouting For Girls gave us all a great time. The pop rockers know exactly how to work a crowd and throw tons of retro easter eggs like Come On Eileen into their action-packed set that takes us back to our schooldays.
By Sunday, the combination of hangover and sleep deprivation gnaws at us all but it’s Unwritten icon Natasha Bedingfield who is there to pull us out of the darkness and into the light (too much light, actually, I got sunburnt). She blows everyone away with her stunning voice and commands the arena like the absolute pro that she is.
Now for some Oxford Symphony Orchestra appreciation. They’ve become a staple for Truck Festival, and it’s easy to see why. They were nothing short of brilliant and drew a huge midday crowd. Seeing a crowd moshing to a classical rendition of Girls Aloud’s Love Machine is almost objectively funny, but the orchestra played genuinely wonderful pieces such as the famous Nessun dorma opera (famously sung by Pavarotti).
What a weekend. We were too maxed out to make it to Franz Ferdinand and Courteeners and that’s testament to how much fun we had. Truck Festival is a roaring indie rock party you don’t want to miss. With around 30,000 attendees it’s a smaller beast than some UK festivals but it doesn’t lack the bite. The headliners are big, the vibes are mighty and the Tipsy Cow is… intoxicated.
Truck Festival returns in 2026, taking place between the 23rd-26th July. Tickets for next year’s Truck are on sale now and you can grab them here: https://truckfestival.com/tickets/.
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