Deer Shed x EMI North
Deer Shed Festival and EMI North are thrilled to announce the selected artists from our Apply To Play programme.
We have chosen 3 artists (rather than just 1) because of the volume and breadth of talent that applied; Cowboy Hunters, Dilettante and Neve Cariad will be performing at Deer Shed in July! These artists will also be supported in the next steps of their career, receiving a series of invaluable mentorship and advice sessions from the EMI North Team.
Congratulations to the chosen acts & thanks again to everyone who applied, we were blown away by the quality of music from all across the North.
We are so proud to be able to give emerging Northern talent a platform to share their music with the Deer Shed community!
Scott Lewis, EMI North: “After an overwhelming response to the call out, we’re delighted to be able to support Cowboy Hunters, Dilettante and Neve Cariad in being part of Deer Shed festival. They’re talented, unique and fully deserving of the chance to appear at the festival. The initial plan was to support one artist, but it soon became clear there were too many brilliant applications, and after discussion with the fantastic team at Deer Shed, we found a way to open this up. Whittling down over 700 applications was a huge and challenging task, reiterating the incredible wealth of talent bubbling up in the North, which makes each of these 3 selected artists a must-see at Deer Shed.”
Artist Bios
Cowboy Hunters
Punk rock settles down and has a daughter. The daughter runs away and has a son with a robot. This hellish cyborg offspring is an exile. Sick riffs and spite are his only solace. This is the story of our ancestors.
Dilettante
Dilettante is the art-pop brain-child of multi-instrumentalist Francesca Pidgeon. Based in the North of England but now performing across the UK and internationally Dilettante has supported the likes of Caribou, Self Esteem + Philip Selway (Radiohead) and performed at festivals like The Great Escape, SXSW (Austin, TX), NXNE (Toronto, CAN), Kendal Calling, Song Swap (Nantes, FR) Focus Wales and Live at Leeds.
Her unorthodox but intricately-woven looped woodwind and off-kilter fuzzy riffs have seen her sell out shows across the UK, release 2 full length albums and receive the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists.
Neve Cariad
Based in Leeds, Welsh-born Neve Cariad is one of Far Out Magazine's "10 Most Exciting Artists in Leeds Right Now" (Dec 2024). Having released her debut EP, Neve, in July 2023, Cariad has gone from strength to strength in both the studio and live performances. 2024 saw Neve performing regularly in Leeds and London, with notable shows at the Brudenell Social Club and MildMay club with her five-piece band, performing a unique blend of indie-folk and art-rock. 2025 is set to be a pivotal year, with an imminent (unnannounced) headline show at London's Shacklewell Arms in June, supports with Clara Mann (Manchester) and Brown Horse (Leeds), and her debut album being set for release in Autumn on Esco Romanesco Records.
Artist Quotes
Cowboy Hunters
"We're absolutely buzzing to have been selected to play this year's Deer Shed Festival! The lineup is stacked and it's gonna be a suuuuuper fun weekend. Also very excited to take our tunes down to Yorkshire for the first time. Big thanks to EMI North and Deer Shed for selecting us from so many applicants. We're hyped 😊"
Dilettante
"I've played Deer Shed a couple of times in the past as part of other people's projects so I know what a wonderful festival it is, but to get to play it as myself feels like a big step up for me. I'm really grateful for the opportunity and glad that EMI North + Deer Shed are making a concerted effort to find and include emerging Northern artists in festival line ups, it's really important that that continues to happen."
Neve Cariad
“It’s very nice to have been selected and we’re very excited to play our first festival!”