The Deer Shed Flash Mob
After a brief hiatus the Deer Shed Flash Mob is back for 2024!
Led by George Bishop friend of the festival and freelance dancer. The Northern School of Contemporary Dance & Verve graduate from Leeds is fully onboard to lead our Deer Shed Dance Squad from learning the moves to the actual performance.
This years Flash Mob track will be none other than The Go! Teams Huddle Formation. George will be leading numerous dance workshops across the festival site along the weekend. So you can learn the moves and get ready for The Go! Teams Sunday evening Main stage appearance. This will be one of the most memorable moments in Deer Shed history, so make sure you join the DSF Dance Squad and don't miss out!
LYNNEBEC Presents You're Out of this World
You’re Out of This World is an pop-up interactive show that celebrates self-expression through dance.
Astro Groovers are intergalactic travellers that know how to throw a party! They are on a mission to discover the galaxy’s hidden dance floors, never danced upon by human kind. With their infectious energy and special space disco dance routine, they train up eager recruits to help them in their quest to discover the greatest party of all time! Catch them out and about around the festival.
LYNNEBEC, co-founded by Cat Butler and Jessica Barber is a multidisciplinary performance company making work for outdoor and unusual spaces. Using physical storytelling, dance and movement, they create interactive stories and adventures that are joyful and empowering.
Kitsch & Sync
Kitsch & Sync are a curiously quirky dance theatre and performance collective. Fusing different dance genres, characters and prop work and comedy with a vintage or retro twist. Audiences can expect quirky choreography, surreal characters, toe tapping tunes and a dressing-up box bursting with enough vintage clobber to make your gran proud!
If you recognise Kitsch & Sync it may be because you have seen the trio’s iconic Lampshade Ladies make a surprise appearance on BBC Two’s Have I Got News for You, or perhaps you have seen their picture on the front of The Sunday Times or as the editor’s choice photograph in The Guardian.
Wherever it is, you won't forget them, and you might even see them pop up in the most unexpected places, a stage for instance alongside a band perhaps, wait and see!
Thunk-It Theatre
For the first time we welcome Thunk-It Theatre to Deer Shed Festival.
Everyone has a story to tell. Thunk-It Theatre, believes in working to make sure everyone from all walks of life has the opportunity to be heard. Thunk-It Theatre connects communities and individuals by getting creative and having a good ol’ natter!
The CIC has been telling stories since 2020. They create family theatre with accessibility at the forefront, with past performances including ‘New Girl’ (2022-present), and ‘Common Ground’ (2021). Alongside their professional productions, Thunk-It loves working with young people in rural locations to create arts provisions in areas where these are limited.
Thunk-It Theatre's Spoon Puppet Making
Make your own Spoon Puppet workshop!
Come and join Thunk-It’s drop in workshop which will have young people (& grown ups!) creating their very own spoon puppet! You might make a strong princess puppet from a fairy tale, or a chomping dragon from mythology. Maybe a cunning knight from the history books, or an amazing astronaut from outer space!
Come along and get creative as we bring our puppets to life, make sure you take them along to Thunk-It Theatres production of Hansel and Gretel across the weekend!
Thunk-It Theatre Presents Hansel & Gretel
“We are Brave! We are Strong!”
Join Hansel and Gretel for a woodland adventure in this fun, accessible performance! This SEND inclusive and signed performance sees siblings Hansel and Gretel telling their story. Abandoned in the woods, the two children must use their guile and courage to escape the clutches of the evil witch, before she gobbles them up for dinner.
Moving through the beautiful wilderness, the audience are immersed into Hansel and Gretel's world. With singing, dancing, and things to feel, smell, hear and see - Thunk-It’s ‘Hansel and Gretel’ is a feast for the senses, and gets the audience included in the magic and fun of this classic fairytale story with a twist!
Back Chat Brass
1 band. 8 instruments. 100s of venues. 1000s of gigs. Infinite fun.
Expect live music that’s anything but boring.
Back for 2024 Back Chat Brass are here with their pop, funk and hip hop brassy beats to add the party vibes to the festival on Sunday at Deer Shed.Since 2016, the band have been wreaking havoc in venues around the world, coaxing even the stubbornest of dance-phobics from their seats with our signature take on your go-to hits.
Trust them, so the only thing that will keep you guessing will be what big banger is coming up next.
Five Children and It
Anna Soden brings her outdoor theatre show Five Children and It, a new adaptation based on the novel by E.Nesbit for the first time to Deer Shed.
Anthea and her brothers and sister live in a sleepy small northern town. She's longing for a bit of adventure, but there's nothing to do! Until one day, they make a strange discovery on Scarborough beach.
Join Anthea, as she tells her magical story through music, story-telling and puppetry in this one woman show suitable for all the family. Sometimes the best adventure's can happen on your own doorstep. Part of Deer Shed's outdoor theatre programme.
Professor Slug's House of Bugs
Professor Slug's House of Bugs is a show all about bugs. Professor Slug is an eccentric expert on invertebrates who helps bugs out with their buggy problems - and you can too!
This interactive theatre show is packed full of colourful puppets, catchy songs, and educational info about the wonderful world of bugs.
From the co-creator of the award winning One Duck Down, this interactive show is packed full of colourful puppets, catchy songs, and educational info about the wonderful world of bugs.
The Camera Obscura
It’s not often you get the chance to step
inside a camera, is it? Well here it is!
Although dark at first in this Little
White Shed of Wonder, give your eyes a
bit of time adjust and let the wonder of
light illuminate the world outside. There’s
no lenses, technological tricks or gizmo
gimmickry here, it’s just natural light doing
its thing.
What’s that over there? Is that Dad
busting out his best moves? Wait, who’s
that tucking into your emergency snack
pack!? Cheeky!
The Dear Post
In an age of instant messaging and
whatever these new-fangled TickTocks
are, good old snail mail still holds a special
place in our hearts…
So much so that we’ve only gone and
set up our very own on-site messenger
service! Swing by our Dear Shed Post Office
(get it?) for all your hand-delivery needs
and celebrate the weekend with friends and
family by sending them a postcard from
right here at the festival.
Where have you been? Who have you
seen? Where are you off to next? What did
you have for breakfast? Have you brushed
your teeth? Let The Dear Shed Post help
you answer all these burning questions
and more.
The Sanctuary Tent
This year, we have joined up with City
of Sanctuary Leeds to provide a Sanctuary
Zone onsite at the festival. It’s a space for
arts and craft as well as learning resources
for young people on what it means to be a
sanctuary seeker living in the UK.
This space will be run by those who have
sought sanctuary in the UK, supported
by numerous organisations from Leeds
who are part of the City of Sanctuary
network. For many on this project this will
be the first time individuals have been to a
music festival, so we are super excited to
welcome the team to Deer Shed this year.
Stockeld Park Presents Light Illuminations
Open throughout the year, Stockeld Park is a unique all-weather family attraction located near Wetherby in Yorkshire. The renowned Enchanted Forest is filled with magical interactive fun and is home to five themed adventure playgrounds! The adventure doesn’t end there, their giant yew tree maze has over a mile of paths with surprises hidden throughout, and the indoor Playhive is one of Europe’s largest indoor play centres. Adventure across high-level walkways and down spiralling tunnel slides as you journey through four interconnected worlds of space, air, jungle and ocean.
We are delighted that the team from Stockeld will be joining us onsite to illuminate the night with lighting from their annual winter light illumination. So try and hold off Mum or Dad putting you to bed on Friday night and stay up past your bedtime to catch some of these wonderful lights in action across Baldersby Park.