Truck Festival supports UN Women UK
- Details
This year, the festival features a number of new elements. It is also supporting UN Women UK’s #SafeSpacesNow campaign to tackle harassment and ensure all who attend have a safe, inclusive experience.
Truck Festival’s alignment with the #SafeSpacesNow campaign will see increased welfare provisions on site, including ‘guardian angels’ offering support to attendees, and training for festival staff to respond appropriately to sexual harassment.
UN Women UK will have a safe space set up on site which will provide advice, support and information to anyone who needs it. The festival has also published the Truck Ethos, a code of conduct that encourages attendees to “look out for each other, respect each other, look after our home, and go at your own pace”.
For 2022, the festival has improved and expanded upon many aspects of its production. Additions include a new main stage structure delivered by Star, a Stage Two which is now 30% bigger, a full video and delay package on the main stage, and a new glamping field. The Saturday of the festival will see a greater amount of production delivered for its headliners than has previously been used across the whole weekend in previous years.
The festival will also see an increase in attendance, having won a new licence in November 2019. Previous editions have been capped at 20,000 attendees, but in 2022 the festival quickly sold out 25,000 tickets.
The new licence permits 30,000 attendees, but in keeping with the independent, community spirit of Truck Festival, the team at Method Events decided to take a staggered approach to increasing capacity after consulting with local stakeholders. If the growth proves to be sustainable for all parties, the festival hopes to expand to its full 30,000 capacity.
Since 2014, Truck Festival has raised in excess of £365,000 for local charities and community groups in Oxfordshire. £89,000 has been raised for local charities through the Feel Good Food Tent, which is run by more than 150 volunteers. £230,000 has also been spent across 32 local suppliers, providing 600 entry level local jobs. An eclectic array of local traders are also providing food at the event.
Lily Brimble, Truck Festival Event Manager, comments, “Our partnership with UN Women is a vital one, and we hope it helps people attending Truck Festival this year feel safer when they’re on site. This is just the start of our journey towards making Truck Festival - and all our events - as safe and inclusive as possible.”
Eve Russell, Method Events operations manager, adds, “Harassment at festivals is, sadly, not a problem that can be quickly or easily fixed, but we hope others will join us working with the #SafeSpacesNow campaign, and help our industry move in the right direction.”
Will Holdoway, Method Events co-founder, says, “It has been three years since the last Truck Festival, and we’re super excited to deliver an expanded event in 2022. We have taken great care to make sure the festival’s growth is sustainable, in consultation with the Safety Advisory Group and Local Authority. It is a privilege to produce such a heritage event that continues to provide support to local people and businesses, as it has done since its inception in 1998.”
