A GROUP of music lovers who rescued a much-loved Oxfordshire festival are in the running for a national award.

The Y Not Festival team took over the running of Truck Festival in Steventon, after mounting debts saw the event go into administration.

The event, launched by brothers Robin and Joe Bennett in 1998, has been a key date in Oxfordshire’s musical calendar, but the organisers were forced to put the event into administration after it ran up large debts in 2011.

The festival was saved when Ralph Broadbent, James Goodall and Simon Mawbey, who also organise the Y Not Festival in Derbyshire, took over, staging a successful 15th Truck in July.

The two-day event, headlined by British Sea Power, attracted a capacity crowd of 5,000 people. The team have now been nominated for a promoter of the year award at the UK Festival Awards.

They are up against competition from the organisers of Bestival on the Isle of Wight and Wakestock in Wales. The decision will be made by a board of industry insiders. The award ceremony takes place at the Roundhouse in London tonight.