A Fallow Deer: The Deer Shed Festival Story Deer Shed Festival

Join music journalist and Deer Shed veteran, Dave Simpson, as he sits down with festival founders, Kate Webster and Oliver Jones, and winds the clock back to 2010 to the very first Deer Shed Festival. How did this married couple go from the London music scene to farmland in North Yorkshire, and establish one of the most unique festivals in the UK?


From time machines and unruly bands, to watching the musicians of the future have that light bulb moment. Ten festivals later, Kate and Oliver reveal how it all began, and the moments when it nearly didn’t.

Everyone is in agreement; it’s the people that make Deer Shed what it is. Music writer and Yorkshireman, Dave Simpson, has gathered together a band of diehard Deer Shed attendees to get a sense of what the last ten years of the festival have been like.


Featuring reflections from Dream Wife frontwoman, Rakel Mjöll and comedian, Justin Moorhouse, we delve deeper in why Deer Shed is so special to so many people.

Nobody saw 2020 coming, but having had a fallow year to reflect, what does the future hold for Deer Shed Festival?


Festival founder Oliver Jones, and Arts Director, Megan Evans, join music journalist, Dave Simpson, to discuss how the pandemic has impacted the festival scene and what the next ten years might look like for Deer Shed and its faithful followers.

With no festivals or live music on the cards, for many of us it feels as though summer has been cancelled.

There’ll be hundreds of pairs of forlorn looking wellies, in the corners of homes around the country!

But if you were planning on attending the Deer Shed Festival this summer, we’ve got something which will hopefully soothe some of the pain of missing out.

Join music critic and writer, Dave Simpson as he looks back on a decade of the Deer Shed Festival!

He’ll be speaking to the people who started the whole thing off, Kate and Oliver, stepping back in time with them to when it all began and hearing about the tears and triumphs along the way.

As well as chatting to the people that make Deer Shed what it is - volunteers, musicians, comedians and young attendees who have grown up on Deer Shed summers.

We’ll discuss what the future holds for the festival, and how the industry will have to flex in post-pandemic times.


Here with your 2020 festival fix, is A Fallow Deer: The Deer Shed Festival Story!