Deerstock Festival is Back for its Fifth Year

This is Deerstock’s fifth year – how did it start and how has the festival grown and changed since 2011?
It was an idea that came about when my mate had a pub with a great beer garden in East Bridgford, and we thought "lets have a festival looking over the beautiful Trent Valley." We lost our site due to NIMBYs [Not In My Back Yard] two years ago, but a local farmer who loved what we represented offered us the most beautiful site in Newton, again looking down the Trent Valley. All our Deerstockers, new and old, have fallen in love with it.

Who’s involved in making the festival happen?
I was the instigator of Deerstock with the rest of the family helping out, since then we have formed an amazing collective of folk who have brought fantastic dynamics to the event. A local couple, Joe and Naomi Woolls, came along to the first event and have since been an integral part of the festival. Naomi and a friend, Geoff Thompson, created the Stage in the Glade, which besides being a quaint acoustic stage, holds a small event called Pixiestock. This event has some of the main stage acts singing and performing for disadvantaged children, allowing them a safe and enjoyable festival experience.

What’s your background in music?
Failed singer/musician in a punk band in '77, I just got carried away with the fact expression through music was a wonderful thing. I'm a great fan of live music and have travelled to many festivals in Europe and the USA. I've also recently started a music management company called NottAustin Music UK Ltd and am in the process of singing a fantastic act from Austin called Jonathan Terrell. We should have his EP out in October and have him playing in Notts and the UK on a tour. We hope to take some UK acts to Austin in the future to showcase the great talent we have here.

Part of Deerstock is raising money for charities – can you tell us a bit about the charities you’ve worked with in the past and who the chosen charities are this year? 
We have raised over £40,000 to date, supporting Unicef, Help for Heroes, PTSD Lee Bonsall Foundation, Notts Air Ambulance, Alzhiemers, Reach, Calm, and The Roy Stone Foundation. Roy is a very special friend who played the very first Deerstock and has played every year, but sadly he took his life in October.

Dreadzone will be headlining on Sunday 24 July

You’ve got a good mix of international/well known artists and local acts, who are you really looking forward to this year? 
It is so exciting finding acts from my travels and inviting them to play at the festival, and then found one in my own house. KT Ana, my nineteen-year-old daughter, has become quite a star over the years in the Stage in the Glade, and will be playing the main stage this year with Doggen All Stars.

How do you go about creating the line up?
We have over 400 acts apply, and the challenge is to get an eclectic mix that is both exciting and people friendly.

If you could book any act – living or dead – to headline, who would you have? 
Without any doubt I would go for Feeder, a band my whole family grew up with and have influenced most things in our lives. From a personal, selfish point of view I would go for The Doors.

You’ve got three stages but it’s also a family event, what sort of things do you have besides the music?
We have children workshops, circus skills and story telling. The collective has some wonderful volunteers, we are so lucky to have people who are prepared to give to make the event great for everybody.

There’s quite a lot of festivals across Nottinghamshire, do you think the more the merrier or is it quite difficult competing? 
It's not a competition for us, we play the same weekend as Splendour but sell out every year, it's a different vibe and a weekend of relaxed family fun.