Deer Shed Festival

[retromoz]

Hello!!!

Thought I'd start this, as I couldn't find a thread anywhere. Just looking for info about it, really?!? Im a Latitude fan who's unfortunately getting a little more disgruntled with the direction that Latitude is going. And I have a 18 month old. So.....this looks ideal for those who like an 'alternative' line up (with a small 'a', i guess), which is at the very least 'family tolerant' but preferably 'family friendly). This looks ideal.

Is it?!? Do Tell.....

Thanks. x

[eFestivals]

Some reviews here:-
http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/deershed/reviews.shtml

Should hopefully fill in many of the blanks.

 

[retromoz]

thanks man. I had read 2016 & 2017's. Will read the older ones too.

Was looking for more reviews from punter too....

[dondo]

We went to Deer Shed for the 1st time last year- was our 5th festival as a family having done Croissant Neuf, Beatiful Days & WOMAD in previous years.  Friends had been going for a good many years and as it's only 40 mins away and the family we normally go to a festival with weren't doing one last year we decided to give it a go.

The weather didn't help as it was pretty awful at times and we thought overall that it was OK- not terrible but equally not brilliant.

Good stuff:

• Short drive for me
• We got there pretty much as the gates opened so were parked really close so was only short walk to site and where we camped
• Kids were at school on the Friday so enabled us to set up camp without any "I'm bored" situations.
• Were with a big group of friends so was good from a social aspect- we also bumped into a fair few people we knew as well.
• Loads for the kids to do.
• Site is pretty compact so not too far to walk and easy to arrange/meet up with others.
• Good beer selection.
• Nice friendly atmosphere.

Not so good stuff

• The festival was just to short for us- we are used to longer festivals both going as a family and when my wife & I have done Glastonbury.  You set up camp Friday and really only have a full day on the Saturday before leaving on the Sunday- you do have the optyion of buying a Sunday night ticket but not many people seemed to do that looking at the tents that remained when we left.
• Based on the above we found it relatively expensive on a per day basis but also thought that other things made it pricey too.  Food whilst always expensive seemed even more so at deershed and some of the kids actvities were expensive too.
• You can't take your own alcohol into the arena.

Our friends are going again this year but we are decided to pass and return to WOMAD.  If WOMAD wasn't the week after Deershed we might have done it as line up looks pretty good this year.

[The Night Tripper]

We go to Deer Shed every year having bevn since Deer Shed 2. The shortened time frame has never bothered us since we are usually jiggered by Sunday evening.  

The music will start about 3pm on the Friday and finish at 6pm on Sunday which, as I say, is enough for us.

It is EXTREMELY family friendly! Sylvie is 5 now and the good thing is that there is lots of activities for all ages. We'very still yet to make it to the sports field or the immersive theatreatment experience that is The Wilderwild.

The music line up is generally strong although I know you can get a wider selection at Green Man or eotr. But there is so much more to access than that including comedy, workshops, talks and theatre. My wife prefers the comedy and last year we managed to catch Hal Cruttenden, John Shuttleworth and Patrick Monahan. 

It'starts 45 minutes down the road for us so it's a bit of a no brainer for us. I would definitely recommend it. 

 

[betharm]

I'm so tempted by this. I love the line up and it's only an hour away from me. Just a bit torn as Blue Dot is the same weekend and I fancy giving that a go this year.

Anyone know what it's like if you don't have any kids?

Edited February 2, 2018 by betharm

[dondo]

27 minutes ago, betharm said:

I'm so tempted by this. I love the line up and it's only an hour away from me. Just a bit torn as Blue Dot is the same weekend and I fancy giving that a go this year.

Anyone know what it's like if you don't have any kids?

We saw a few people there that didn't have kids (spoke to a couple on the Sunday who were nursing a pretty big hangover!) and there is some late night stuff that goes on so wouldn't think you'd feel to out of place.  It would be more whether there'd necessarily anything of interest to you during the day if you haven't got kids.

[betharm]

Thanks @dondo . It sounds great! I am sure with a bit of nice weather during the day it will be lovely to just chill out.

[The Night Tripper]

There is always some music on somewhere.

There's four music stages (three on the Sunday). On Friday, it starts at 4pm (though there's an extra band on this year so make that 3pm) and when there's a band on the main stage there's generally no other music on. When an act finishes on the main stage then bands start playing on the other three stages. Once they finish another main stage band will start playing and so forth. Saturday and Sunday the music starts about 11am. Headliners finish about 11pm apart from Sunday at about 5:30pm. As Dondo said after the headliners finish there's generally some music on one of the other stages till about 2am.