THE farmer who owns the site of Oxfordshire’s Truck Festival has said he is delighted by the organisation behind the music event.

Alan Binning, who farms Hill Farm, Steventon, with his son Richard, said he was delighted with the running of the festival, which brought a record 18,000 people for four days of music from last Thursday to Sunday.

Highlights included sets by Oxford band Foals, Two Door Cinema Club, punk-rockers Idles, singer-songwriter Kate Nash, former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr and experimental electro-rock act Public Service Broadcasting.

The festival also raises tens of thousands of pounds for charity, much of it through the sale of food and drink in its Feel Good Food Tent.

Mr Binning is a member of the Didcot Rotary Club, which served steak sandwiches and bacon butties to hungry revellers.

They were joined by other local good causes selling everything from good coffee to real ale, macaroni cheese and Thai curry.

Oxford Mail:

Alan Binning in 2017

He said: “It has been a very good year; a real success.

"Everyone in our food tent reported good takings and we had run out of a lot of things by Sunday night. This has been great for all the good causes raising money here some of whom really depend on what they can make this weekend.”

Mr Binning was critical of organisers two years ago after a dreadful 2017 edition which saw expanses of his 500-acre farm reduced to a treacherous mudbath because of heavy rain, poor planning and a lack of remedial action on behalf of organisers.

Read more: Hometown heroes Foals 'own' Truck Festival + pictures + videos

He also accused organisers of sidelining the charity-fundraising food tent and threatened to end the event. However, he said lessons had been learned and the event was now on a solid footing for the future.

He added: “The festival this year seemed very well run and the layout is great. It went through a difficult adolescent’ period but the balance is now right and I am very happy with it.”

Oxford Mail:

Two Door Cinema Club

Final day performances also included You Me At Six, Dodie and The Futureheads, as well as Oxford favourites Brickwork Lizards, August List, Long Insiders and anthemic soulful country-rock band The Epstein –featuring Truck co-founder Joe Bennett

The band’s frontman Olly Willis, from Binsey, Oxford, said: “It is great to be back on this field, a place we played so many times and made many friends.”