Our first weekend of the summer holidays was at Deer Shed Festival in North Yorkshire.  We had the most amazing weekend of sun and fun and will definitely want to return next year.  I’ll share with you throughout this post things we loved but I’ll focus on some tips to help you get the most out of the weekend if you’re planning on heading to Deer Shed Festival 2023.

What Is Deer Shed Festival?

Deer Shed Festival is a family-friendly festival which takes place in Baldersby Park, North Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 2014 by Tom Whalley and Joe Heap, who wanted to create a festival that was different from the mainstream festivals.

Deer Shed is known for its intimate atmosphere, its focus on independent music, and its range of activities and workshops for all ages.

The festival takes place over 3 days and features a lineup of up-and-coming and established artists from a variety of genres. In addition to music, Deer Shed also offers a range of other activities, including comedy, theater, science, and sport. There is also a strong focus on food and drink, with a variety of vendors offering everything from street food to fine dining.

What Dates Are Deer Shed Festival In 2023?

The festival runs from the 28th-31st of July 2023.

How Much Is Deer Shed Festival?

The cost of a Deer Shed Festival ticket varies depending on the age of the attendee and the tier of ticket purchased. Prices are currently priced on tier 3

• Adult 16+ full weekend ticket (including free general camping): £190 (plus £9.50 fee)
• Child full weekend ticket (11 to 15) (including free general camping): £77 (plus £3.85 fee)
• Child full weekend ticket (6 to 10) (including free general camping): £66 (plus £3.30 fee)

Children under 5 are admitted free of charge.

Tickets can be purchased online at the Deer Shed Festival website, there are also options for parking, and camper vans.

Can You Get food and drink at Deer Shed Festival?

Yes, there is a wide variety of food and drink available at Deer Shed Festival, including:

• Burgers
• Pizza
• Fish and chips
• Vegetarian and vegan options
• A wide variety of drinks, including beer, cider, wine, and soft drinks

Top Tips If You’re Heading TO Deer Shed Festival In 2023

1. Book early for Deer Shed Festival!

If you are wondering about going to Deer Shed Festival 2023 then do!  But book as soon as you can. Tickets go up in price as the year goes on.  via www.deershedfestival.com/tickets.

2. Book the Friday off work and head up early.

You don’t necessarily want to bagsy a pitch right next to the festival but it’s great to get yourself set up and head into Deer Shed Festival to get your bearings when there aren’t so many people around.

3. Book activities as soon as you get to Deer Shed Festival

You need to book activities in the science tent, sports arena and in the wilderness for throughout the weekend as soon as you can. If you arrive on Friday evening decide which area to head to and focus on booking those activities. You can still have a really fab weekend without doing them (North East Family Fun did, read their post here) but mine do like to do some of the organised things.  We managed to book onto slime making, raspberry pi, marine forensics but missed out on the Minecraft VR by about 3 people.

4. Camp light

It’s a long way from the car park to the camp site at Deer Shed Festival ( although not as long as some festivals) and even with a trolley it can take twenty minutes to carry your things to your pitch. Put things in bags that the kids can carry, for example ours carried their own sleeping bag and backpack with clothes in.

5. Take a trolley

Take/hire a trolley even if you don’t have little ones. Really useful for taking chairs around with you into the festival and supplies of food and snacks and water. This may depend on the weather I guess as in the pouring down rain you may not want to be lugging it, but they are most definitely useful for taking all your things to your pitch! l

6. Choose the area you pitch your tent wisely.

Do you want to be in the middle of all the action? Be close to the toilets? Or do you want to be in a quieter spot, with more room around you? Chat to the site volunteers when you arrive they were really helpful and able to point us in the right direction.

We chose a quieter spot, not too far from the toilets but not too close that we would hear/smell them and we chose a field where we had a little more space around us too. We didn’t want to be too close to another tent so as we could hear someone else snore!

7. Tips For Deer Shed, Take a potty!

Mine are a good 5 years past using a potty so this was a camping purchase. The toilets within the camping area were fine during the day but between 7 and 9am and 10pm and 12am at night there was a 30 minute queue for the loo (more toilets needed Deer Shed) but the potty and toilet paper saved us from emergencies. Speaking of toilets these were great most of the weekend; Clea and usually with toilet paper but worth keeping a roll of toilet paper and some hand gel in your bag for later on in the day.

8. Go with Friends

Going with friends to a festival gives you all flexibility. Flexibility to head off to other tents or see different bands without leaving one person on their own with all the kids or feeling like you’re seeing the festival alone as you watch the kids!  It’s also a lot of fun. Persuade all your friends to book for Deer Shed Festival 2023 and make it into a brilliant weekend.

9. Invest in a landyard

Invest in a lanyard when you get to Deer Shed Festival, as it will have the weekend mapped out. You can then see easily what’s on at any particular time. We used it to have a rough idea of what we wanted to watch. Which leads me to.

10. Don’t be a slave to the Deer Shed programme

Use the programme to have an idea of what you want to do when to get an idea of what’s available but don’t be a slave to a programme: some of the most fun things we did we stumbled upon. The round table late one evening where the kids debated environmental issues, the empty helter skelter late one night, the Kids yoga and the scuba diver helmet making all being perfect examples.

11.  Try things you’re not sure about

Who knew that the kids would love Rachel Parrish and her late night set on Saturday night. Her ‘hen do on a train’ song is now permanently lodged in my brain and the ‘I’m amazing song’ is Izzy’s favourite. I wouldn’t have expected for the kids to like it never mind laugh out loud, but laugh they did. So push their boundaries and see what they love! Mine even found a new love of ‘Sock Wrestling’ – who knew!

If you want to read some more tips about attending Deer Shed Festival? Why not check out Yorkshire Tots and Teens post here.