UPDATED: Truck Festival celebrates 21st birthday with sun, fun and great bands + PICTURE GALLERY

The event, which for the first time was held over four days, came to a close last night with rock bands The Editors and Courteeners taking to the stage at Hill Farm Steventon.

The festival, also featured sets by chart-topper George Ezra, singer-songwriter Jake Bugg, indie-rockers Friendly Fires, dance act De La Soul and Oxfordshire artist Gaz Coombes.

The show was brought to a close by the Kurupt FM crew, made famous by the TV show People Just Do Nothing- who played a set of bass-heavy dance, hip hop, grime and drum & bass. 

Despite a heavy downpour on Friday evening, the event, which attracted 15,000 people, was largely blessed with fine weather, with sunburn replacing the problems caused by the mud of last year’s festival.

A new traffic management plan removed any problems on the roads and organisers were quick to mop up any sign of mud by laying out straw.

Mr Coombes, who lives in Wheatley, delighted fans with a powerful performance of new material from his latest album World’s Strongest Man and treated the crowd to a heartfelt rendition of the song Moving, by his former band Supergrass. He was accompanied by his live band made up of members of the Oxford music scene.

After Friday’s set, his first at Truck since 2013, he said: “It was fun. It’s great to be back at Truck again and I love playing with these guys.”

His guitarist Nick ‘Growler’ Fowler and Garo Nahoulakian later joined Truck Festival founders Robin and Joe Bennett for a one-off reunion of their country-rock band Goldrush. The first Truck was staged in 1998 as a birthday party for Robin. Friday night’s show on the festival’s Veterans and Virgins stage coincided with Robin’s 40th birthday.

He said: “It’s been great. We have had a really good time. It’s great to see Truck still going strong. It is very different to how it was when we started it, but everyone seems to love it. It still attracts a young crowd too, just as it did when it began – though there are still plenty of old-timers like us here too.

"It still has a lot of the elements of the old Truck Festivals too - with lots of local bands, many of our friends coming and playing and the Rotary Club and charities boosting their coffers by selling food and drinks."

Joe, who plays with Robin in the band The Dreaming Spires, said: “It was fun getting the band together and I don’t think it will happen again. It was a real moment.”

George Ezra said he was delighted to have topped the bill on Saturday. He said: “I love it. When I was younger, we had nothing like this. There were a handful of festivals but they were essentially glorified village fetes. But this is brilliant.

“It’s brilliant for someone like myself. This is my first headliner at a festival, which is amazing fort me, but there were also bands playing earlier in the day for which this would have been their first time on a main stage.”

The festival mascot, the Truck Monster - a large furry beast with horns - made a few appearances to the delight of festival regulars - and surprised children as it made its way around the site.

Drummer Mike Monaghan - aka Micky Sticks - from Carterton was performign behind the drum kit with Gaz Coombes' live band, squeezing in the Truck Festival show between gigs at Edinburgh Castle and Yorkshire. he still managed to return to Hill Farm for Sunday's bands, though.

He said: "It's been great. I love Truck. It's a great chance to catch up with people and have a laugh. And it's always an honour to play here to such an amazing crowd."

Nick Cope formerly of Oxfordshire indie-rock band The Candyskins, played an early set aimed at families and was later relaxing with his brother, and former bandmate, Mark. 

He said: "Truck is huge now. It's nothing like it used to be.

"But people still love it - and with the sun out and the bands playing, it is really good.

"I had a good crowd for my show - which seemed to go down well!"

Festival director Matt Harrop said: “It’s been a cracking weekend of Truck – the longest ever event in our history. Opening on the Thursday afternoon for the first time was very popular.

“We’ve made huge improvements on last year with keeping the roads flowing and stopping traffic building up in Steventon. We were also very impressed with the acts we managed to secure this year.

“George Ezra on Saturday night was a huge highlight for everyone performing the hits of the summer with Paradise and Shotgun. Friendly Fires brought the tropical disco vibes on the Friday night and Courteeners on Sunday were the perfect way to finish the weekend.

The event also raised thousands of pounds for charity, with local good causes joining Didcot Rotary Club is selling food and drinks.

Mr Harrop added: “The fun doesn’t stop as we’re already securing our headliners for 2019 and can’t wait to see everyone back here then.”