Deer Shed

Best ride in the festival

Friday - we were bad parents and took Tom out of school for the last day of school.  We were upfront with Tom's teacher and were surprised to get a telling off!  Apparently it was not a good idea, it didn't look well upon Matt as he is a Governor, we would have to write a letter to get permission etc etc.  We then asked the Head Teacher who told us not to worry, not to write a letter and to enjoy ourselves!  Not sure why Mrs Clements was so funny about it - she didn't actually 'teach' anything in that last week - Tom came home saying they weren't doing any work, and they didn't.  Monday was rehearsals for the show, Tuesday was the show, Wednesday they played games, Thursday was swimming gala and more games and Friday you could take in a board game and they were having a picnic.  Tom actually did more work at Deer Shed on Friday than he did at school in one week!  Humpfh - rant over!

Work horse

So, it was raining on Friday morning - not a good start!  We packed the car and headed over.  First stop was Leyburn to pick up some beer (in cans as glass not allowed) and tea and a bun before arriving at the site around 11.45.  Wow!  The site was already full!!!!!   How????!!!!  We arrived around 11am last year and it was still empty!  We actually struggled to find a space for our two tents (we were meeting up with another family and they had given us their tent to pitch because they wouldn't be able to get there until late).   We did manage to find space, and got both tents up, it was windy - so it really tested us as we held on to the tents for dear life to stop them blowing away as they went up.  By 1pm we had them up, so we put all our stuff inside and headed to get our wrist bands and into the arena to find some food.  The food at Deer Shed is normally amazing and reasonably priced (well for a festival anyway).  We weren't disappointed.  I started the festival off with falafel with feta and roasted red peppers with tsaziki - it was super yummy.  Tom had a crepe with lemon and sugar and Matt took advantage of no queue at the pizza stall and had a Hoisin Duck pizza.  We were all very happy.  We had a look around the bar area, in the merchandising area (they do a great line of t-shirts and jumpers but sooooooo expensive that we can't possibly bring ourselves to buy any!)

I then looked through the programme and noticed that Sam Sam Bubbleman was on stage at 2.45pm so we did a little more exploring and headed over to the big top to watch it.  He was brilliant as he always has been, and because it was Friday afternoon on a school day, the tent wasn't overcrowded, meaning Tom could get to the front and the bubbles held.

Festival crowd!

Afterwards we headed back to the tent, to finish sorting it out and have a bit of a relax before heading back down to the craft area where Tom decided to make a willow and paper lamp.  It was a team effort in the end (well once Matt turned up - he sampled the bar on the way in and turned up with some cider and beer).  At one point I worried if we would ever be able to do it - especially when seeing what other 'children' were doing (for 'children' substitute parents), there were some amazing complicated star shaped lanterns happening, we went for the classic pyramid and actually did a good job.  Tom did well when he concentrated - pity he was distracted by everything going on around him! If I prodded him he was OK, but left to his own devices, we wouldn't have managed any of it - usual story then!

We were just enjoying a sit down after finishing the lantern when we found out that the Leighs were about to arrive.  So we went back to the tent and up to the car park to find them and lead them to their tent.  They were travelling very light, so it was just the one trip for them to get everything to the their tent (it took us two trips - but then we did have a tent 3 times the size, with camping table etc).  They got themselves quickly sorted and then we all headed to the arena for tea.  The Leighs were starving and stressed: this week they had moved house and Fabian had his last day at Primary school.  Roz was having an interview for a new job on Monday in London (they live in Sheffield) so Deer Shed was a welcome distraction to the chaos going on around them!

Before the rain

Food: I had Tibetan spinach and chickpea curry with a vegetable momo.  Tom went for Whitby fish & chips and Matt had chicken and mango korma.  We were all very happy with our menu choices.  We set ourselves up on the hill and enjoyed the music playing whilst the kids played and we chatted.  We stayed to the end of the last set - a record for us.  The kids went for Churros right at the end, so we had a almost midnight snack of them.

So in the middle of the night the heavens opened and it rained, rained, rained.  Wow.  We were all wrapped up and cosy in our tent and our tent was amazing - not one droplet of water entered it!  Also the rain meant that people making noise in the camping field went to bed and the white noise of the rain on the roof helped me drop off to sleep.  It was a win, win, win situation, plus although it was raining, it didn't get cold at night, making the sleeping in a tent thing all the more comfortable.

Water rocket

We got up around 8am the next morning - Tom of course had slept through everything.  We discovered that the rain had made the festival field very very muddy, true festival experience for us this year then.  We started the day off with some crumpets from the 'Crumpets from Scrumpets' stall - this was Matt's favourite of all the food stalls - nothing to do with the dress sense of the Scrumpets - no really!!!!  I had a crumpet with red pesto and herbie mushrooms - very nice, whilst the boys went for butter and cheese (very boring!).  We then got ourselves ready for the day.  We went to the science tent, made a water rocket, paper airplanes, had a go on a marble run, and took part in the Street Science games held by Newcastle University - Tom was pretty good and was able to try to explain some of the science he was experiencing which was fab.  We saw a magic show which inspired the kids for the rest of the festival as there was a magic stall and they all bought tricks which they worked on in the evening.

Fabian and Tom on the Ferris Wheel

After lunch of Macaroni cheese x 3 we headed to the sports field for a game of cricket which Louis and Tom really enjoyed.  Louis and Roz then split from us, Matt went back to the tent for a lie down and Fabian, Tom, myself and Andy headed back to the main arena so Fabian and Tom could have a go on the Ferris wheel.  They waited patiently in queue a good 40 mins and had a fab time on the ride - especially so because they got longer than average as the operator was busy putting together a roll-up!

Tom and I then split from Andy and Fabian to do some arty crafty bits, but when we got to the area, everything was closing - oh well, we went back to the tent to see Matt instead. We had a little down time before taking the chairs to the hill in time for King Creosote, an artist Matt knows and likes.

Gorgeous light over the camping field

The rest of the evening was spent on the hill listening to music, drinking and eating: Fish finger sandwich with cheesy beans for Tom, veggie curry from Gandhi's flip flop for me and a posh pie for Matt.   It was lovely and warm until about 9pm when it suddenly when cold and windy, then we enjoyed a magnificent sunset until at 10pm the heavens opened and it chucked it down with rain.  This was at the same time as the headliner Kate Tempest came on stage - she's a poet, who reads poets to music.  Her second sentence included the word 'fucking' which wasn't great as Deer Shed is full of families, so we decided to head back to the tent.  By all accounts she put on a great performance, but we weren't prepared to get wet!  Guess we aren't the hardened festival goers after all!!!!!!

Dry stone wall and owl

It rained quite a bit in the night, which meant I managed a pretty good night's sleep (well for sleeping in a tent anyway).  We got up, shook the water from the tent and headed down for breakfast - I found a stall doing smoked salmon, avocado and scrambled eggs and very good they were too.  By the time we got back to the tent it had dried off, so we packed it up and took everything back to the car (it took 3 trips this time - but we couldn't get hold of a trolley as everyone was doing the same).  We then headed to the Wilder Wild, where there were outdoor themed activities: den building, blacksmithing, dream catcher making, scouts and cubs and a clay modelling workshop.  Tom took part in the clay modelling - they were supposed to make faces, but he ended up making a dry stone wall and I made an owl to go on top.  We met some lovely huge Newfoundland doggies and we chatted to the local scout leader for a while - he had a blanked full of patches from around the world.  I would have stayed chatting for a while, but Tom ended up dragging me away - how rude!!!!!!!

In the Wilder Wild

Once done there, the Leighs decided to go home as they had loads to do.  We headed to the arena for lunch: Tibetan for me, Fish and Chips for Tom again and Satay for Matt.  As black clouds were rolling in, we decided to make it a day and head home as well.

It was a good weekend, felt like we only scratched the surface of the activities, there was so much going on.  Was great to spend it with the Leighs, who seemed to enjoy our company - much better than last year!  Hoping we go back next year...