Deer Shed is a festival that's never lost its founding instincts

Their shrieks of delight drift on the breeze, mingling with the sawing and hammering of older kids crafting dens nearby, and with the satisfying thwack of 20-plus swingball sets in action in the field next door. A stone’s throw away, Brighton four-piece The New Eves launch into “Highway Man”, their terrific, elemental post-punk temporarily overpowering the hubbub.

Welcome to Deer Shed, the fully independent North Yorkshire festival that pours as much love into its music programming as it does creating unforgettable family experiences. In an increasingly competitive festival market, that’s a rare proposition. More often than not, one aspect comes at the expense of the other, and in Glastonbury’s case, families are corralled into the Kidzfield, away from the main party. But if the prospect of shelling out approaching £400 per person to spend a weekend stuck in that kind of exile sticks in your throat, this competitively-priced three-dayer feels like a breath of fresh air. As they put it in their manifesto, “We don't have kids’ areas as such – they're not zoo animals.”

Offering an opportunity to meaningfully engage with the music you love in an environment that’s welcoming for the entire family, Deer Shed is a powerful proposition. Nick Simcock of Birkenhead-based venue/artist hub Future Yard agrees. Having crossed the Pennines this weekend to run pop-up sessions of their popular under-fives rave Mosh Tots, he emphasises the continued importance of festivals like Deer Shed. “When people make a life change by having a family, they might think they can’t do things like this anymore. Weekends like this prove them wrong.”

Founded in 2010 by Kate Webster and Oliver Jones, and set on the landscaped farm land of Baldersby Park, the three-day event has always given excellent music and family-friendly entertainment equal billing. Previous headliners include CMAT, Stereolab and Kae Tempest, while their extracurricular programme has grown exponentially as the festival has expanded from an initial capacity of 2,000 to 10,000, offering a huge range of sports, art and science activities.

This year, younger “Shedders” can choose between Nerf gun battles and DJ workshops, soft play and roller discos, learning kayaking and the aforementioned hay bale massacring in an area dubbed “Feral Farm”. In the wooded seclusion of the “Wilderwild” arena, older attendees enjoy classes in pot throwing, ring making, wood carving and glass blowing, alongside wild swimming and off-grid saunas. And then there's the sprawling, 2,500 square metre maze at the heart of the festival, which gives rise to 2026’s “Into the Labyrinth” theme. Resourcefully constructed from security fencing, Webster describes it as “an outdoor escape room featuring a bit of immersive theatre.”

Whichever way you look at it, Deer Shed is punching well above its weight for a festival of its size. But an ambitious offering was always the aim. “Smaller festivals can sometimes feel a bit like village fêtes,” Webster reflects, tactfully. “We didn't want that.”

Musically, catering to families without compromising on quality – or encroaching on an artist’s freedom of expression – is a delicate balance. Friday night headliners Say She She make it seem simple, offering a dreamy mix of disco, funk and soul that’s characterised by impeccable vocal harmonies and shimmying, sequin-embellished choreo. Watching vast swathes of the crowd wave their LED capes and glowsticks during a cover of "I Believe in Miracles" is a spectacle that stays with you.

On paper, Saturday’s headliners Sleaford Mods are a much tougher sell, serving up brutally economical electronics, topped with Jason Williamson’s acerbic, frequently expletive-laden bark. According to a quick straw poll the morning after, their set proves polarising but Jones remains unrepentant. “We've said numerous times, it's your responsibility to suss out what's appropriate for your family and it's our responsibility to give you all the information to make that choice.”

Indeed, he argues that, “[booking] Sleaford Mods was very much us drawing a line in the sand and saying: this is who we are. They’re a band that I personally feel are extremely important. Yes, there's a lot of vitriol, but for kids growing up it's important to know that some people are (rightly) cross about society. And culturally, [that booking] defines like never before what we are, and our belief that no one demographic should suffer because of the needs of another.”

Of course, there are plenty of bookings where social realism isn’t even a consideration. Lighting up the comedy and cabaret-focused Big Top stage on Sunday evening with silly songs about tea towels, middle-aged men in shorts and sustaining minor thumb injuries, The Adam Buxton Band prove perfect inter-generational entertainment. Inexplicably, so too do Fat Dog on Saturday, who draw the rowdiest crowd of the weekend on the main stage with their chaotic, klezmer-inflected dance-punk. It’s a scene-stealing performance that screams “future headliners.”

For Festival Director and Lead Booker Megan Evans, the emerging act to headliner pipeline is always a key consideration of her programming. “Our audience really likes building a relationship with an artist, so I’m always thinking five years ahead, developing future headliners.

“It's really great when you see a band understanding the audience in front of them, building that relationship when they're on stage, because it really helps them going forward. When they do signings, the queues will be out the door, and when they come back and tour the north, all of our audience will attend.”

London sextet Man/Woman/Chainsaw are a case in point, who can be found packing out the In The Dock tent with violin-flecked art-pop, two years on from their Deer Shed debut. Cardiff punks Panic Shack are also returning heroes, delivering a suitably oversubscribed secret set on the same stage on Saturday afternoon. But it's Minehead’s Getdown Services who claim the title of the weekend's most anticipated comeback. After signing records for a full hour and a half, the Harry Styles-annointed duo prove headliners in all but name, shutting down the In The Dock stage with their irreverent brand of indie-disco.

There are stellar debuts too. Gretel’s glorious gothic pop proves a crowd-pleaser, as does GANS’ vicious mix of post-punk and mutant disco. Folk-punk sextet Madra Salach cement their reputation as ones to watch, even if vocalist Paul Banks has to issue the playful mea culpa, “I want to apologise for shouting a swear word six minutes into, what is clearly, a family-friendly festival.” And then there’s the ever-incomparable Sorry, who start every song with a disconcertingly sun-warped sample before shifting into an even more unsettling gear.

For Evans, the focus remains on unearthing new talent. “When you go to a festival, there are always a few acts on the bill you want to see because they’re established and you know them. But what do you leave the festival talking about? You talk about the band that you walked into the tent that day knowing nothing about.”

This year that act is Boko Yout. The first of a killer run of late night programming that also features La Securité and Joshua Idehen, the Swedish quartet show up in khaki scout outfits and deliver irrepressible post-punk imbued with a healthy dose of camp. Frontman Paul Adamah is a superstar in waiting, proving as magnetic a presence interacting with an 80-year-old woman in the audience as he is leading the assembled throngs in a communal marching exercise. They are my undisputed highlight of the weekend. And as for my eight-year-old’s? That’ll be kayaking, Adam Buxton and the roaming percussion collective Backbeat Samba.

As a parent, having the opportunity to foster formative experiences like these is a total joy. So too is the sight of groups of young teenagers roaming unsupervised, exploring the site independently in total safety. Webster hopes that some of these might one day join the Deer Shed team, as many others have done previously.

“Having grown up around here as the daughter of farmers, all I wanted to do was work in the music industry,” she recalls. “It’s easier now because you've got Leeds Conservatoire and BIMM and places like that, but for me at the time I had no idea. So the question is how do you offer that opportunity for people in this area? Come and do work experience.”

It's this community-first philosophy, paired with a genuine home-from-home feel and thoughtful curation, that makes Deer Shed such an underrated gem on the UK festival circuit. Here’s to the next 16 years.