science programme revealed for Deer Shed Festival 2019

Deer Shed Festival 2019

Friday 26th to Sunday 28th July 2019
Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, North Yorkshire, YO7 3BZ, England MAP
currently £165 for weekend incl camping - sold out

Daily capacity: 10,000

Last updated: Mon 22nd Jul 2019

The science programme has been revealed for the 10th edition of family-friendly Deer Shed Festival 2019, which takes place at Baldersby Park near Topcliffe, North Yorkshire from Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd July.

With a theme of Generation XYZ. Thisw year's start for the Science Tent is Generation Y YouTube star Sam Battle, aka Look Mum No Computer, with mind-boggling musical inventions like the Furby Organ and the flame-throwing Henry Hoover, as well as a vast collection of homemade modular synth racks. After Look Mum No Computer’s performance on the Sunday morning’s In The Dock stage line-up, Sam will rub shoulders with Deer Shedders in the science tent to demonstrate and chat about his engineering skills.

For the past six months the Deer Shed team have been hoarding ancient games consoles for the retro video game arcade. Get-Well Gamers, a charity dedicated to providing thousands of children and young people in hospitals across the country with donated games consoles, will run the arcade, lending expert advice where needed. Consoles available to play in the arcade include: Atari 2600, ZX Spectrum, Nintendo NES, Sega Megadrive, Nintendo N64 and a Sony Playstation 1. SuperTux Cart – a modern version of that other popular karting game – will also be available to play on the festival’s multi-screen, multi-player Raspberry Pi network. Strictly only the grown-ups is first-person shoot ‘em up tutoring.

For a less virtual nostalgia trip, there's Rubik’s cube masterclasses for those who never quite mastered the art. Bring your own cube for the weekend, or pick up one of the festival’s custom-made, collectible cubes to take home.

There's the return of the popular short lecture series, SHED Talks (Ideas worth stealing)! As well as running music production workshops with Ableton & Push, Liina Turtonen will speak about The Human Connection in Recording and Music Production, concentrating on the way innovations in digital production have changed the way we listen to, interact with, record and create music.

Other SHED Talks will feature: Alex McLean, an experienced algoraver (algorithmic rave) who will talk about writing code to generate live music; Mylar Melodies, Deer Shed’s resident master of modular synthesis; and Luba Elliot, an expert in the new creative field of A.I. art (images
developed by robots through machine learning).

You can develop your DJ skills and knowledge on a range of tech through the ages, with Leeds-based DJ duo, Baba&Ganoush. Old favourites in the Deer Shed science tent have not been forgotten: wrekshop (where kids are allowed to literally wreck a load of old tech to examine their inner workings), slime-making, virtual reality, Ableton + Push music production, soldering with MadLab, coding with Dan Aldred & Pimoroni, whacky inventions with Paul Granjon, modular synthesis with DivKid and Dave Whitfield’s weather forecasts will all be on offer once again.

Deer Shed Festival director Oliver Jones said: “Some science festivals can be a bit stiff. Not us we hope! What’s the point in introducing your kids to the wonderful world of STEM if it doesn’t spark joy? Our science tent is all about lighting the spark that sets the younger folk up to embark on their own epic journey through the scientific world. Enthral them early and they’ll soon find their way on their own. Oh, and we will, of course, have many shiny toys for the grown-ups too!”

Full list of science for 2019: Look Mum No Computer; Retro Video Game Arcade; Get-Well Gamers; Rubik’s Cube Masterclasses; Adult-only First-person Shoot ‘Em Up Tutoring; Forensics at the Disco; SHED Talks (music production with Liina Turtonen, algorave with Alex McLean, modular synthesis with Mylar Melodies and A.I. art with Luba Elliot); Johnny White’s Pinball Machine; DJ Generations; Reach Robotics – MekaMon; Isometric Art; Wrekshop; Slime; VR; Ableton & Push; Soldering with MadLab; Dan Aldred; Pimoroni; DivKid; Paul Granjon and Dave Whitfield’s Weather.

All the kids activities and workshops free of charge.

Music at Deer Shed this year features headliners Ezra Furman, Anna Calvi & Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, and its comedy line-up, featuring Reginald D. Hunter, Nina Conti, Milton Jones, Rachel Parris and Kiri Pritchard McLean. For the details as available please see the line-up page.

Tickets are on sale, currently priced as follows:-
adult (16+) weekend: £145
child aged 11-15 weekend: £50
child aged 6-10 weekend: £50
child aged 3-5 weekend: £20
under 5s weekend: free but needs ticket
campervan / caravan / trailer-tent: £50 (awning extra £15).

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