There are just two weeks until Deer Shed Festival 3 at Baldersby Park in North Yorkshire and the team have pulled together a Top 10 of Things To Do at this monstrously good, truly family-friendly weekend for lovers of great music.
1.Watch some amazing music. Every single music act has been chosen because the festival team love them.
2.Get up close and personal with a giant sea monster. The team have become a bit obsessed with this year’s theme of monsters and a lot of their time has been spent in a secret laboratory (well it’s a barn really) channelling Dr Frankenstein.
3.Sample cinema like they did back in the days before 'The Talkies' – watch a classic silent film with a live soundtrack accompaniment.
4.Challenge friends and family to swingball tournaments on the most indestructible swingball sets in the world. So fed up with the flimsy ones you buy in the shops, Deer Shed Festival asked a friend to build ones able to withstand a Wimbledon centre court serve.
5.Embrace your inner computer geek and model your very own CGI 3D monster. Teeside University and their green screens are coming to Baldersby Park again.
6.Get Skallop’ing. Festival directors Kate and Oliver Jones are not immune to pester power – their three kids under 11 are mad for Skallops, the latest building toy craze from America, so they’ve got a load in. There are rumblings of a dads vs mums competition so Kate and Oliver have been practicing behind each other’s backs.
7.Write some Twitter poetry. By the end of the weekend all festival-goers should be well versed in 140 character works of art to rival the Twitterati elite.
8.Take up shooting...of the high-powered paintball gun kind to create canvasses worthy of a Turner Prize entrant.
9.Be happy. Whether it’s the 40 plus exotic animals stopping by, watching the best circus performers in the UK or getting your doodle on, the festival guarantees some ear-to-ear smile moments.
10.Chill out. Deer Shed Festival allows children to roam and spread their wings while their parents take a break from everyday life and get back to what’s important – hanging out with their loved ones having fun.
Shortlisted for the Best Family-Festival at the UK Festival Awards 2011, this is an independent festival run by a family for the family. The Deer Shed Festival team book bands they love, work with like-minded people, keep it chilled, don’t squeeze a thousand tents into a field the size of a postage stamp and don’t charge a fortune. Taking place over the first weekend of the school holidays, a family of four can attend for less than £200.
*** MUSIC BILL ***
Saint Etienne, Villagers, Cherry Ghost, Los Campesinos!, Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves of Destiny, Dutch Uncles, School Of Seven Bells, Human Don’t Be Angry, Cashier No 9, Janice Graham Band, Treetop Flyers, Club Smith, Moody Gowns, The Staves, Paul Thomas Saunders, Woodenbox, Laki Mera, AK?DK, Washington Irving, The Glendale Family, Tupelo, Rachel Sermanni, We Were Evergreen, Ellen and the Escapades, The Lost Brothers, Rae Morris, Pale Seas, Arthur Rigby & The Baskervylles, Gary Stewart, Pip Mountjoy, Sam Airey, R M Hubbert, Monument Valley, Beccy Owen, Boat To Row and Serious Sam Barrett
*** ARTS BILL ***
Cinema from the National Media Museum, spoken word sessions by authors Dave Simpson and Dorian Lynskey, family poetry workshops led by James Priestman, The Greentop Circus Cabaret in the Big Top, Best Joined Up graffiti artists mixing classic street styles with fine art, artist blacksmith David Stephenson creating bespoke jewellery, Spike & Sponge’s Sunday Market full of arts and crafts from local Yorkshire artists, Spray Creations creating artwork in the blink of an eye, master illusionist Harris III and more
*** ACTIVITIES ***
Animation and video sessions from Teeside University, Matt Pattinson’s four towering Doodle Walls, Dr Frankenstein’s DIY Monster Project from Eureka! The National Children's Museum, workshops in everything from comedy to cardboard monster creating to calligraphy, bedtime story-telling, face painting, swing balls (not just any swing balls – unique, customised, locally made, reinforced swing balls and a whole field of them), paintball art guns, an exotic animal extravaganza (over 40 snakes, spiders, lizards, massive toads and some furry things), bush craft lessons and a stack of sports
And not to forget the all-important theme...
Following on from last year’s Sky At Night theme, in 2012 Deer Shed Festival is all about going big for scary, mythological, fairy tale, imaginary (or are they?), cuddly, extraordinary
Published on 06 July 2012 by Ben Robinson
