A review of Deershed Festival

The website says bring your kids – and they did. The lead singer of Headliner I Am Kloot summed it up as a festival with a capacity of 5,000….adults and 12,000 children. It did feel a bit like that and the oddest thing was the traditional area for the hard core fans at the front of stage was constantly populated by a group of knee-height children hanging off and sucking the crush barrier.

That said, it was great. The bands were staggered perfectly so you could see much more than you achieve at a larger festival. The food was great. The camping was everything you needed and there were about 50 swingballs and a huge area to keep the kids entertained. The parking was free and not far from the campsite which was right next to the modest arena. It was spotless with ample bins available and people seemed to just use them no question.

Headliners I am Kloot

The stalls were enough to keep you entertained between acts and the extension to include the Friday night with bands and big top cabaret made a full weekend of it as did the Craft Market that sprung up Sunday morning whilst we all slept. It was so simply put together with the people really making the event. The thought that had gone into it was endless – from the cardboard boxes that appeared one morning for the kids to clamber around in to the birds of prey display which beat all the bands for me!

It was relaxed. It was a whole audience sitting on their picnic blankets though an entire band because they’d had a hard week at work and just wanted to relax and enjoy themselves. An opportunity to try something new from making a sock puppet or a cardboard guitar to a venison burger and a pint of the local tipple.

Strawberries & Cream at Deershed

The festival is well priced for the three days with camping and parking included. I knew enough of the bands and have found a few new favourites. A good showcase of local talent they also manage to bring in some bigger names. I did the maths a few times and still can’t work out how they did this on ticket sales. Let’s hope they did and fingers crossed that they bring it back next year bigger, better but still as wonderfully charming.