Celebrating and giving back to the local community has always been at the core of Truck Festival, therefore ‘Truck in the Community’ covers a range of fundraising and work opportunities provided by the festival. Today they announce that in 2022 the event raised over £100K from the festival’s staple Feel Good Food Tent, which will be divided between 10 local charities to help them with their work within the Oxfordshire community, plus another £20K raised through on-site fundraising for the ‘Truck Trust’.
Spanning out across several arms, the event’s work involves donating proceeds raised during the festival as well as partnering with key initiatives, such as UN Women’s Safer Spaces Now campaign, that helps to ensure a safer and more inclusive festival experience can be had by those who attend Truck Festival. Also this year the Truck Trust was launched in order to grow the festival’s annual fundraising and charitable donations even further, whilst allowing opportunities for more charities and organisations to apply for funding.
The newly launched Truck Trust endeavours to offer financial support to charities and organisations local to the Oxfordshire area. £20k raised and donated to the Truck Trust will now be given to 26 Oxfordshire charities to help them continue the vital work they do in the community. These organisations include; Be Free Young Carers, Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue, Orchard Counselling and My Life My Choice, amongst 22 others.
This comes alongside notable collaborations on-site at this year’s Truck Festival with the likes of the Young Women’s Music Project, who designed the Truck charity T-shirt alongside artist Iman Mahdy - raising £2.5k for charity - and programmed workshops in the Signature Brew Taproom, as well as Be Free Young Carers, who participated by filling paint bags ahead of the festival’s annual paint party in exchange for weekend tickets to the event.
Sabiene North, CEO Be Free Young Carers says of the initiative: “Truck Festival has always been a loyal supporter to us and we were delighted to have been supported this year. They have given our young carers, and their families, the opportunity of a lifetime to attend an event that wouldn’t normally be available to them. It was especially important to our older young carers, as most of their friends were attending and it gave them the opportunity to fit in and respite from their caring role. The paint packing was so much fun, it gave the young carers the sense that they were giving something back in return for tickets. Thank you very much to all at Truck Festival who made this possible, from giving our young carers backstage access and seeing behind the scenes in the HQ, to the weekend passes, you have made our young carers feel special and a part of this amazing event.”
If you were on-site at Truck this year, you would have likely seen the space dedicated to UN Women’s Safer Spaces Now initiative. By partnering with the organisation Truck aimed to tackle sexual harassment at live events, whilst creating a safe and inclusive space for women and marginalised groups. Their work alongside UN Women included supporting with staff training and providing education and information on site at the Safe Spaces Now Tent, with the aim of making the event a safe and inclusive space that invites everyone – regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality or ability to join the party at Hill Farm.
Ahead of the event, over £60K worth of festival tickets to Truck 2022 were donated to the Tickets For Good scheme, where NHS workers were given the opportunity to enter a ballot for free tickets to the event. Truck Festival also teamed up with the pupils from the local St Michaels C of E Primary School. Students were tasked with drawing portraits of the 2022 line up, from Sam Fender to Kelis, which were then printed onto tea towels and sold at the event. Raising £500, all profits from the sales were donated to the school alongside a signed version of the tea towel which hangs proudly in their building.
And lastly, but by no means least, the annual Apply To Play scheme was overwhelmed with the quality of amazing submissions from artists, which allowed for 32 slots across the weekend to be given to new and emerging talent.
It’s all of the above which have seen Truck Festival recognised for their impact on the local community at the 2022 UK Festival Awards. Alongside nominations for Marketing Campaign Of The Year and Best Medium-Sized Festival, they are also up for the Sarah Nulty Community Impact Award.
The line-up for 2023’s event will be announced in due course.
TRUCK FESTIVAL RETURNS IN 2023
21ST - 23RD JULY 2023
