FESTIVAL REPORT: Deer Shed Festival 2025 (Friday)

When: 25th July 2025

Where: Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, North Yorkshire, England

Deer Shed 25 has officially sold out. But please rest assured, this is not a figure of speech. It just means that once again the tickets for this brilliant festival have all been snapped up. This should come as no surprise, really, as for the next three days Deer Shed will return for its 15th anniversary edition staying as true as ever as it brings with it some of the best music, comedy, theatre, science, and sport for the whole family.

School’s out…for summer. Baldersby Park is a picture in the warm sunshine, a riot of colour, energy, and excitement as it awaits the start of the weekend’s entertainment. On the site’s main stage, the Cornish-born, Glasgow-based musician and recent Lost Map Records’ recruit Curtis Miles ignites the Deer Shed 25 flame. “They should be headlining” says a confident-looking young man stood at the front. He must be about eight years old but listening to this impressive curtain-raising set the lad certainly knows what he is talking about.

The Big Top featuring comedy, shows, and films and the nearby Buckendz Tent with its emphasis upon literature and spoken word events do not hit their full stride until tomorrow. Mind you, there is still plenty going on at Deer Shed. There’s the ever-popular Kapow wrestling, all manner of workshops taking place in Wilderwild, kayaking, and tree climbing. The sports arena is already in full swing – quite literally – the outdoor arts programme too, and the science tent is open for business. There is something for everyone, a veritable playground for people of all ages. Safe, inclusive, and such really great fun.

There is even more music. Of course there is. And so much more of it. The three main music stages are up and running. Dilettante – the art-pop project of multi-instrumentalist Francesca Pidgeon – give lie to their name, speaking a sophisticated language that truly connects with a large mid-afternoon crowd In The Dock, whilst over at The Lodge Brighton’s Rifka adds to her growing reputation with a glimmering voice and a series of deceptively contagious tunes.

Self-described “trashcan country” outfit Honk tell us there are a hundred ways to say “Howdy” and on this evidence alone they seem to know most of them. They even give us ‘Let the Dog See the Rabbit’ twice, the second being a well-deserved encore. Divorce channel their anger at the outside world – a global picture of genocide, human rights abuses, and complicit governments – into a dazzling performance. ‘Free Palestine,’ urges co-vocalist and guitarist Felix Mackenzie-Barrow. It will not be the last time we hear this righteous sentiment expressed over the weekend.

“Is everyone having a beautiful day?” asks the brilliant Scottish singer-songwriter and musician Kathryn Joseph. Having received a universally affirmative response she says with just the merest hint of a glint in her eye, “Good. That stops now. This is going to be disgusting.” Disgusting it most certainly is not but accompanied by “Mr. Bastard Campbell” – I am not quite sure if that is his given forename – she hammers out dark, ominous chords on her keyboard whilst delivering raw and often, quite frankly, disturbing lines about blood, death, and loss with such meaning and her intense, thousand yard stare. In doing so, she lays down an early strong marker for set of the weekend.

Such is the magic and magnetism of Deer Shed, many artists return here for the second and, quite often, the third time. The fictional character John Shuttleworth and the hugely versatile New York singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Joan As Police Woman fall into that category. He speaks of his dislike for folk music and love of Dandelion & Burdock, she confirms her status as the Sgt. Pepper Anderson of contemporary music, pioneering, bold, and challenging conventional wisdom.

Rich(ard) Dawson has damaged his Achilles tendon. It curtails his ability to jog but not his capacity to produce the track of the day, ‘Jogging.’ Here he rocks right out, showing his deep love of metal music as he does so. Given he belted out the unmistakeable riff to Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’ in homage to the recently departed Ozzy Osbourne at his earlier soundcheck, this is little wonder.

This just leaves it down to Wunderhorse to close out what has already been a most fabulous Friday. And close it out they do in some considerable style. From the title track of their second album, Midas to ‘Rain’ they crank up the decibels and intensity as they propel the opening night and the festival itself forever forward.