FESTIVAL REPORT: Deer Shed Festival 2025 (Sunday)

When: 27th July 2025

Where: Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, North Yorkshire, England

Time was when Deer Shed Festival used to shut up shop at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon. Those days have long since gone. Now Baldersby Park goes right on into the wee small hours of Monday morning, courtesy this year of Ross Hoy and his late-night DJ set.

Long before then, though, the Buckendz Tent is bursting at the seams early doors for the fascinating talks with first, Stuart Murdoch – Scottish musician, writer, filmmaker, and the lead singer and songwriter for Belle and Sebastian – and then John Harris, Guardian columnist, writer, and critic who, amongst other things, is speaking about his newest book Maybe I’m Amazed: A Story of Love and Connection in Ten Songs.

Closing this year’s excellent series of In Conversation, Adelle Stripe speaks candidly to Peg Alexander about her Yorkshire upbringing and experience, which is brought to life in her latest novel Base Notes. Originally intended as a non-fiction piece, Base Notes is a journey through the author’s childhood, adolescence, and beyond. Each chapter is given the name of a 1980’s perfume. Those in the audience old enough to remember Rive Gauche are instantly, and magically, transported back in time.

Over in the Big Top the comedy continues unabated, as do the younger Deer Shedders, who are strong on self-direction and audience participation and all of which is fielded admirably by the performers. Jazz Emu is an early evening highlight before the comedy shows culminate with headliner – and what a coup this is for Deer Shed – Reggie Watts. The American comedian and musician proves to be suitably deadpan and most certainly, out there.

Sunday’s music clicks into gear on the Main Stage with Mandrake Handshake and a Bo Diddley beat that quickly mutates into a delightful Krautrock, art-pop, and psychedelic groove. Up at the top of the gentle slope at In The Dock, Teesside’s Benefits use the launchpad of Wings’ ‘Live and Let Die’ to take off. It’s as scary as hell but the Middlesbrough FC scarf tethered to their electronics’ rig is a reassuring sight in case of any inflight turbulence.

With Deer Shed’s innate ability to contrast light and shade, the British-Indonesian artist Nadia Kadek offers some gentle sonic balm over in The Wilderwild. Her closing song ‘Green Car’ speaks of forgiveness and fuses a lightness of touch with strong emotional power.

Having crossed the Atlantic with plenty of homegrown New York attitude packed away in their BOAC bags, BODEGA hit the ground running in memory of Ozzy Osbourne with a faithful and most respectful reading of ‘Paranoid.’ They follow this with some cracking tunes of their own, drawing upon the early influences of fellow New Yorkers Blondie, The Dictators, and the Ramones in doing so. They even dedicate the song ‘Shiny New Model’ to “our friends” The Bug Club who had preceded them on the main stage and had already put in a sterling shift of their own.

Spielmann gives a big shoutout from the Wilderwild stage to all the parents here with children – after all, more than half of those attending Deer Shed year after year are under the age of 16 – who have safely managed to negotiate their way around all the sex, drugs, rock’n’roll, and swearing one normally associates with regular music festivals, before launching into another great pop banger, ‘10,000 Hours.’ with a cry of “Let’s fucking go.” He is such a card, that Ben Lewis.

Unless there is actually two of him, Roddy Woomble is putting in a double-shift today. No sooner is he over at The Lodge performing a lovely acoustic set alongside Sorren McLean (guitar) and Hannah Fisher (fiddle) than he is up on the main stage fronting indie-rockers Idlewild. The only differences are a significant increase in decibel levels and a nifty change of shirts. Needless to say, both sets are superb.

Sandwiched in between the Woomble double-act is King Hannah with one of the best shows of the entire weekend. Bathed in a sea of red lighting that complements the vibrant colour of singer Hannah Merrick’s dress, the four musicians strike up an equally rich and immersive sound that grabs hold of your senses and shakes you into an advanced state of euphoria.

Fulu Miziki is a collective of artists from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who show just what can be achieved by the creative use of a few disused 5 litre paraffin cans, a bunch of empty biscuit tins, what looks suspiciously like home-made guitars, and some head attire appropriated from the wardrobe of the set of David Cronenberg’s 1986 film, The Fly. Having some absolutely fantastic Afro-futurist tunes doesn’t do any harm either.

The Big Moon have at least three reasons to be cheerful. The Lionesses football team have just successfully defended their European title; it is the band’s drummer Fern Ford’s birthday; and this occasion marks The Big Moon’s first ever festival headline appearance. And the four women bring the 15th Deer Shed festival to a suitably triumphant close with a sublime run of pop-infused classics – the mid-set pairing of ‘Wide Eyes’ and ‘Waves’ is a masterstroke – that makes their step up into this top-of-the-bill role seem so perfectly natural.

10,000 people can’t be wrong. Achieving its first sold-out event in the post-Covid years affirms the fact that Deer Shed continues to punch well above its weight in what is a fiercely competitive and often overcrowded festival market. And much of this success is down to Deer Shed staying true to its core principles of the creation of a safe, intimate environment with a strong emphasis upon inclusivity for all. Putting together a high-class programme of entertainment for people of all ages certainly helps too as does the cultivation of such a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Long may you run, Deer Shed.

Additional reporting: Claire Eggleston