Deerstock is a beautiful festival with a beautiful heart… & a beautiful guy behind it

Hello Jed, so where are you from & where are you at, geographically speaking?
I am actually an Essex boy but moved to Newark Notts in 1978 and have never returned South I now live in Gunthorpe Notts about 1 mile from the Deerstock site

How did you develop an appreciation of music?
From my days at Boarding School I was lucky to have a Mass Media teacher who used to take us into London to see bands

Where, when & how did the idea for Deerstock Festival originate?
In 2011, my friend ran a pub called The Reindeer (hence the name) in East Bridgford we decided to have a festival in his back field, unfortunately the NIMBYs in the village weren’t keen and the council refused us permission to run it again but a lovely farmer who loved the fact we were a volunteer based charity event offered us the Cross Country course and we have been there ever since

Deerstock Poster 2019.JPG

What is it about organising festivals that makes you tick?
The buzz of introducing bands that people would never normally see, the talent around is unbelievable we get over 500 bands applying now!!

Can you describe one of your family-team festival planning meetings?
We are old hands now and respect each others roles (the most important thing when running a festival), my son James has taken over the actually physical creation of the festival which means I just deal with the fluffy bits.

Can you tell us about the site & how it contributes to the vibes?
The site is a Horse Riding Cross Country Course in the Trent Valley we have fantastic sunsets every evening.

How is the festival’s working relationship with Nottinghamshire County Council?
We actually come under Rushcliffe Council and they are very helpful (since we moved lol)

Can you tell us about the charities who benefit from Deerstock?
This year we have Framework (Homeless Charity), IMARA (Child Abuse Charity) REACH (Learning Difficulties Charity) there is a list of previous charities on http://www.deerstock.co.uk we have raised over£80000 since we started.

What is the highlight of the 8 years running Deerstock?
They have been many highlights for me personally Getting Eddie and the Hot Rods (one of my favourite all time bands) seeing Dreadzone absoloutely smash the event but I must admit it would be seeing my daughter KT (a trained musical theatre actress) singing onstage with Doggens All Star Band (Doggen is the guitarist in Spritualized and a very good friend of mine).

What acts have you guys got for us this year?
Our Headliners are TransGlobal Underground, Unknown Era, Doggens All Star Band, Tony Wright from Terrorvision & Tom Williams.

What allowance do you make for local acts gracing the stage?
90% of our bands are local

This years theme for Sunday Is The Summer Of Love, Time to let your inner Hippy shine man!

Can you tell us about the ‘I’m not from London’ posse?
They are a Nottingham-based music company who have been very supportive in the past, we thought it would be a great idea to have them curate a stage for us bringing a new dynamic to the festival

To someone who has never been to Deerstock, what can they expect?
They can feel part of a lovely community who all come together to have a great celebration of music and laughter. We have the also local firm Experian supplying volunteers to help at the event this year too.