Deer Shed 12 took place at Baldersby Park, near Tockwith – 29 to 31 July 2022.
The 2021 Deer Shed was called Base Camp Plus, or the lite version of Deer Shed, the 2022 was very much the max version, and back with both barrels.
The layout was tweaked, with even more activities. Deer Shed prides itself on offering something for everyone in the family, and they justified in being proud.
They have the main stage, along with a number of other stages, a big top tent, stages for spoken word talks or for yoga or African drumming.
Then there are the marquees for interactive science workshops and lots of crafty things to do.
We were lucky enough to be with them from Friday to early evening (sorry Django Django to miss you!)
There’s so much to see and do at Deer Shed it’s difficult to know where to start. Headlining on Friday was Nadine Shah, and her first headline festival spot.
Nadine was preceded by the sheer energy of Billy Nomates, and Yard Act, a band from Leeds.
From Nadine Shah we headed up to see Rory Hoy in the Dock Stage, that was just past the main bar, with a quick pause on the way for a libation (Beer was around a fiver a pint)
Rory is from Knaresborough, a regular at Deer Shed, and very popular.
It was a silent disco, meaning everyone had headphones – it does make it interesting and funny to photograph.
A video of the crowd sing along – your singing, wasn’t good enough for Youtube to put a copyright claim against the video!
Saturday’s proceedings were commenced with a Heck Sausage and the Kakatsitsi Master Drummers on one of the smaller stages.
We also caught part of Njambi McGrath, both a writer and comedian, on the spoken word stage. Njambi spoke of the misreporting of history, colonisation and reality of African countries being ravaged by other countries. A talk with deep significance, and left you reflecting on your own school history lessons.
Now we were realising that planning was essential, so turned to day planner in the back of the programme.
Our Saturday evening started with a bit of comedy in the Big Top, hosted by the Duchess Diane Chorley. The duo Shelf were funny and very relevant. Paul Foot sadly had the ability to urge many to the door, where we followed, heading to the main stage.
Evening acts on the main stage were CMAT, Self Esteem and, headlining, John Grant.
Sunday commenced with a free coffee from Taylor’s and another Heck sausage, before heading for an 11am appointment to watch Jack Francis.