The North’s favourite family friendly music, arts and science festival is set for its most exciting edition to date.
Not only are Goldfrapp, Drenge, Field Music and Public Service Broadcasting topping the music bill, but the Big Top tent – doubling as the Deer Shed Comedy Club – will host TV favourites such as James Acaster, Rachel Parris, Daliso Chaponda and Justin Moorhouse.
A new site layout and main stage area represents a realisation of what director Oliver Jones always dreamt the festival would look like when he and his wife Kate launched Deer Shed as a one-day event nine years ago, back in 2010.
Oliver Jones said:
We always had a perfect image in our head of a tree-lined background to the Main Stage that befitted the beauty of Baldersby Park.
Things always got in the way, but we’re delighted that our nine-year-long vision for the site will now finally come to fruition. Though audience capacity will remain the same, we’ll have more space and, as is the case each year, we’ve invested more in the music, arts and science programme than ever before.
We’re so excited. We’ve just had this Grand Reopening theme for the recent tour, where the band snipped an inaugural ribbon before launching into their ferocious set] and we’re definitely going to be inventing something really special for this occasion too.
Both the festival organisers and the performers will be pulling out all the stops, with Eoin Loveless, lead singer and guitarist of Sheffield-based Drenge, promising a special homecoming show after recently returning from a three-year hiatus.
Deer Shed has long been celebrated for its ability to retain an intimate, boutique festival vibe, whilst attracting bigger names year on year.
Drenge’s new single ‘This Dance’ seems tailor made for such a festival atmosphere, as Eoin revealed it was written as a call to arms for listeners to lose themselves in the music: “There’s nothing like going to a party and ending up on the dance floor, belting out ‘80s chart tunes as if you’re at the barrier at a Slayer concert. Your arms and legs colliding with friends, and with complete strangers. Dancing like nobody’s watching and hoping they don’t call the police – it’s all about that freedom.”
Tier 3 tickets are running low, but are still available from www.deershedfestival.com/tickets
Deer Shed Festival History
- 2018 will mark the ninth year of Deer Shed Festival. The team behind it have been in place from the start and families are at the heart of the preparations, the activities, and the services on site. In the last nine years we have grown in attendance but are always careful never to become too big.
- Those eight years have seen a host of amazing artists perform including Kate Tempest, Billy Bragg, Johnny Marr, The Divine Comedy, Everything Everything, Richard Hawley, Beth Orton, Teenage Fanclub, Anna Calvi, Arab Strap, Steve Mason, Ibibio Sound Machine, Rae Morris, Kind Creosote, Cabbage, C Duncan, Lonelady, Edwyn Collins, Teleman, Villagers, I Am Kloot, Saint Etienne, The Wedding Present, School of Seven Bells, Honeyblood, The House of Love, Field Music and many more.
