Taking place from 22-23 November at Rural Arts, Thirsk, the first edition of the Podcast Social Club will welcome some of the nation’s most popular podcasters at the top of an eclectic line-up.
The two-day programme will consist of 27 live podcasts in three rooms across a range of themes, covering music, mental health, astronomy, gardening, gaming, craft beer, food, football, politics, books, textile art and even Harry Potter. Organisers hope the diverse programme will entice an audience that is equally diverse in its interests to enjoy arts under one roof in North Yorkshire.
Local treasures Julian Norton, of the popular Channel 5 television series The Yorkshire Vet, and stand-up poet Kate Fox will launch the first episode of their brand-new podcast, The Naked Vet, while comedian Robin Ince will bring his hit literary podcast, Book Shambles, to the market town.
Jessica Fostekew – one of the UK’s most in-demand podcasters after her work on The Guilty Feminist – will host a live episode of Hoovering, a podcast all about the joys of eating food. Andy Dawson (Bob Mortimer’s co-host on Athletico Mince) and broadcaster Sam Delaney will host their anarchic football podcast Top Flight Time Machine – for which over half of the ticket allocation has already sold out.
In her quest for more ups than downs whilst living with bi-polar disorder, comedian Harriet Dyer will present feel-good podcast Don’t Worry Bi (polar) Happy, speaking to a special guest about the recent joys in their life. Best-selling author and columnist for The Sunday Times, Laetitia Maklouf, has invited landscape gardener and regular BBC Gardener’s Question Time panellist, Matthew Wilson, to join her on The Virgin Gardener, where the two will share simple advice on the joys of gardening as well as discussing their own personal gardening journeys.
To encourage audience members to fully embrace the medium, award-winning podcast producer Dave Pickering will host a workshop with discounted rates for students, titled The Possibilities of Podcasting, on the fundamentals of making a podcast, suitable for beginners and intermediates.
Elsewhere, series like The Retro Hour, The Three Track Podcast, Stitchery Stories, Milk The Cow, Life Goals, Creative Forces, After All This Time, Always and Steve and Roland’s Beer Podcast will ensure a range of more niche interests are covered, while shows like Killer Rabbit, Syzygy: an astronomically good podcast and When in Yorkshire provide strong representation for the Yorkshire region.
Local food trader Toast of Harrogate will take over the café in Rural Arts, providing homemade food for podcast patrons, and a pop-up bar will offer a range of local drinks.
Deer Shed Festival and Podcast Social Club Director Oliver Jones said:
Our vision with the Podcast Social Club is to offer a programme of podcasts that could conceivably spark the interest of anyone in the local area – even those who may not currently consider themselves podcast listeners.
There are deep divisions in our communities right now, but this medium opens so many avenues not just for entertainment, but for dialogue, debate, analysis, nostalgia and new ideas to form. A podcast is a shared conversation, and their boom in popularity shows just how much we crave that as a society.
With many more podcasts and guests still to be announced, full information on the line-up and how to buy tickets can be found at podcastsocialclub.com
