When: 26th – 29th July 2024
Where: Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, North Yorkshire, England
In a year that has seen even more music festivals postpone or call time altogether, Deer Shed continues to flourish. Inflation, skyrocketing tour and supply chain costs, debts incurred during the Covid pandemic, and slower ticket sales have all contributed towards many such events struggling to survive.
Back for its 14th annual outing, Deer Shed’s ongoing success owes much to a combination of astute administration and its having hit upon a winning formula in the family-friendly festival market. Each year Deer Shed creates a theme – Retro Futures is the choice for 2024 – and then around this proceeds to develop a most diverse and inventive programme of music, comedy, arts, science, theatre, and sport for people of all ages.
One’s experience of a British music festival can often be ultimately determined by the vagaries of the weather. In that respect, Deer Shed 2024 gets off to a flying start. Come Friday afternoon the sun is high in the sky and both Ellur and Nature Kids quickly lock into that warm summer groove. Hailing from neighbouring West Yorkshire both acts also further evidence Deer Shed’s strong commitment towards supporting and promoting local talent.
The day’s music starts to gather some pretty serious momentum with the arrival of first Jessica Winter and then Liz Lawrence. Winter brings dynamism and an electronic pop sensibility to the Deer Shed table whilst Lawrence’s songs roll from the main stage in wave after wave of funk-infused desirability. Their presence also highlights what will over the weekend be a most healthy number of women on the bill, a comparative absence of which has been an accusation rightly levelled at many music festivals over the years.
OneDa, Jalen Ngonda and Nana Benz du Toga bring to the party exciting elements of hip hop, drum and bass, afro-trap, the golden age of soul, and voodoo, illustrating the fact that Deer Shed is always willing to push the parameters of its own cultural and creative reach and by doing so seek to introduce a wider audience to the event.
“What is the Coral?” a youngster is overheard asking his father. “It’s a band,” comes the reply. “What sort of band?” enquires the boy. “They play rock/pop.” I am not entirely sure how accurate this description is, but the lad seems satisfied with the answer as do thousands in front of the main stage later that night as The Coral enter into the spirit of the occasion by playing a set that embraces fully the festival concept of a brand new retro. Their sublime cover of The Doors’ ‘People Are Strange’ reinforces the point.
On Saturday Baldersby Park quickly immerses itself in the full Deer Shed experience. There is something for everyone. There is the Science Tent, full of a multitude of gizmos, games, and sundry delights. Slap bang next door those under the age of five – Little Shedders, no less – are equally well catered for. There are all manner of workshops from Alien Fortune Tellers to Air Guitars and the ever-popular and super-expanded Cardboard Megalopolis to Crab Claws (which feature on Sunday night when Fat Dog take to the stage). There is the Sports Arena, wild swimming, tree climbing, kayaking, and the perennial swing ball for the more energetically inclined. Outdoor arts, green crafts, and a whole raft of well-being wonders are here in abundance, not to mention the Feral Farm where the simple pleasure of just throwing straw at other children brings countless youngsters hours of endless fun. And that is before we even get on to speak about films, comedy shows, and a run of top talks and spoken word events in the Buckendz Tent.
Following his set with the band LYR the previous night, the current Poet Laureate and Professor of Poetry at Leeds University, Simon Armitage is in conversation with Guardian journalist Dave Simpson. It is a relaxed discussion which covers subjects ranging from the power of daydreaming, Armitage’s journey into writing, his time spent working in the Probation Service, and references to Mr Benn (the BBC children’s series, not the politician!).
The author Anna Doble is then in conversation with award-winning broadcaster Peg Alexander. Doble talks about her book ‘Connection is a Song: Coming Up and Coming Out Through the Music of the ‘90s’ and she takes the audience through her decade of experiences by referencing songs from the Spice Girls to E17 to the Cocteau Twins and Moby to Chesney Hawkes, prompting memories of the music magazine Smash Hits’ lyrics pages and the old Heineken Festival held in Roundhay Park in Leeds.
Dave Simpson is then back, this time to speak to Scots’ author John Niven, talking about Niven’s latest book, O Brother, a poignant and at times raw account of his brother Gary’s suicide and the far-reaching effects this had on his family members. It is a hard-hitting yet also an entertaining discussion in which we hear about Niven’s record company days as A&R working for Independiente Records as well as his other novels.
But there is still plenty of time and space on Saturday for some more great music. Mindful of the Deer Shed demographic – 50% of those in attendance are aged 16 years and younger – Tapir! bellow “No school. No homework. No rules” to resounding cheers before embarking upon a similarly liberating journey that takes in the sights and sounds of jazz, folk, and charming experimentation.
The Brooklyn singer-songwriter Lizzie NO picks up from where she had left off at The Crescent in York a few days earlier. “Gonna keep it pretty freakin’ heartbreaking up here for 45 minutes,” she says, but her positivity once again shines through as she captivates us with material from her latest album Halfsies.
Playing their fourth festival in three days, Norwich’s Brown Horse show no sign of tiring. The wistful haze of their country rock shimmers from the Lodge Stage as lead singer Patrick Turner recreates himself as East Anglia’s answer to Adam Granduciel from The War on Drugs.
The Lodge is definitely the place to be today with a couple of other delightful performances there from Katherine Priddy – a further reflection of the richness and texture of her songwriting – and a suitably stirring set from She Drew The Gun – a late replacement for John Francis Flynn who earlier had unfortunately retired hurt – which is full of political fire and a cracking cover of The Beloved’s ‘Sweet Harmony.’ Louisa Roach isn’t finished there, though, turning up a few hours later in the site’s wonderful Wilderwild hideaway for one of their late-night acoustic Fireside Sessions.
With the title of their sixth studio album My Big Day emblazoned across the back of the main stage, Saturday’s headliner Bombay Bicycle Club proceed to make it everyone’s big night with a set that goes large on killer tunes, fun, and adventure. As they sign off with a majestic ‘Always Like This’ you imagine that in BBC World it always is.
Sunday morning sees one of the bigger crowds of the weekend flock to the Buckendz Tent to hear the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham speaking to local radio journalist Rima Ahmed about our current political climate here in the UK, most specifically those outside Westminster and the south. It prompts a stimulating discussion around what Britain could become over the next decade and beyond, as outlined in Burnham’s book Head North.
Suddenly the Welsh are coming, and in considerable force too. Melin Melyn open on the main stage just before noon. Half a dozen rather dashing chaps in their matching costumes, they are complemented by a trio of occasional dancers who mutate from mermaids into cowgirls as the set progresses. They are here to entertain us and they most certainly do. From off-kilter psychedelic pop to Celtic cosmic country, including a lovely reading of ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ which is rudely interrupted by a telephone call from singer Gruff’s Mum who reminds him to sell some merch.
Cerys Hafana plays the Welsh triple harp – quite beautifully it must be said – and sings Welsh and English folk songs in their respective languages. There are songs about the baby Jesus going on a murderous rampage in Herefordshire and hats that are made from tree bark which can only grow in Paradise. It can be as savage as it is mystical and is a thing of great splendour.
Tucked away in Wilderwild – where it is cool to get down with nature – is Deer Shed’s fourth music stage. Paul Jones and Stephen Black are Group Listening and they do the location justice with a collection of songs drawn mostly from the latest album, Walks. The old 70’s phrase “getting it together in the country” never seemed more apt as a series of jazz-inflected, minimalist, instrumentals gently unfold. The elegiac ‘Hills End’ transports me back most comfortably to the avant-garde revisionism of Terry Riley’s A Rainbow in Curved Air.
In marked contrast to this eloquent tranquillity, The Go! Team make a most welcome and exuberant return to Deer Shed 11 years after having last been here. Age has not withered any of their onstage athleticism or the power of their old-school sound. The dial is then moved even further into the red by Fat Dog. It is wild, chaotic and synth guy Chris Hughes, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Donald Sutherland’s character Sgt. Oddball in the 1970 movie Kelly’s Heroes, is pretty soon knee-deep in the crowd. “It’s a woof woof world”, the band’s Joe Love tells us and it is hard not to disagree.
Two years ago, CMAT was on this very stage, albeit appearing at three o’clock in the afternoon. She is now unquestionably Ireland’s biggest new star and just like Deer Shed festival itself she is in the ascendant. Thoroughly deserving of her place at the top of the bill, she closes out Deer Shed 14 with a perfect blend of country music, pop and showbusiness pizazz. CMAT closes with a triumphant ‘Stay for Something’ and there are thousands here who wish that they could all remain at Baldersby Park for just a little bit longer. Still, there is always next year.
Additional reporting: Claire Eggleston
Photos: Simon Godley
