This year's Truck Festival is the thirteenth we've done, and we're more proud of it than ever. Right now, Robin and Joe Bennett are in a van on the way back from a festival in Kent and on the way to the second Truck warm-up show at the Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, where they're playing as part of Danny And The Champions Of The World.

Disaster Radio at Truck '09

There are other warm-up shows on Sunday in Cardiff, and in the week running up to the festival around Oxford. This is all during a fortnight of frantically dotting “i”s, building the site of the festival, bringing the main stage on-site (as ever, there will be Trucks involved...), and some poor soul will have to clean the Barn with a pressure-hose so that it's ready for the weekend.

This year's edition is dedicated to Big Star's Alex Chilton, and on the Sunday Teenage Fanclub will no doubt pay fitting tribute someone that's been a musical hero to them, and to all of us, for the longest time. Saturday headliners Mew will bring over their entire lighting rig from Denmark to Steventon for their only UK festival appearance this year.

Wild Beasts at Truck '09

Truck have had a relationship with Drowned in Sound that dates back at least to the year when Sean et al. produced the festival programme, and this year we've put together some stories for DiS.

So, watch out for a little more about Mew later in the week, as well as all some words on what it means to be an independent festival in this day and age, and the logistics of running a festival (Truck America) from across the ocean, as well as a few previews of some of the acts playing further down the bill.

x Christopher Bennett