Deer Shed Festival is going to be far more than your music-dominated festival experience and is proud of its tradition of variation, diversity, and science!

Following the recent announcement of excellent family workshops allowing children and adults to discover their creative side, Deer Shed Festival have now confirmed the return of last year’s much loved Science Tent dedicated to those people who want to explore their inner Einstein.

Expanding on last year, the Deer Shed Festival is welcoming back some old favourites (Draw a Circuit, Pond Dipping, Minecraft, and the inventor of the cybernetic parrot sausage, Paul Granjon), whilst introducing some exciting, new acts such as London Science Museum’s acclaimed comedy-science team, Punk Science, and the hands-on, messy, madness of the CHaOS Science Roadshow.

With the Up in the Air theme firmly in mind, there could be no better person to pilot the Science Tent than Andy Chipling, an expert paper aircraft designer, who was part of the brilliant Project Space Planes in 2011 and competes in Paper Aircraft Competitions around the world. What he doesn’t know about folding paper planes isn’t worth knowing, and what he does know is astounding. It’s not all paper planes, however, Deer Shed Festival is also bringing helicopters made of paperclips, rockets made of matches or water bottles, and 3D plane modelling made of data and pixels. Plenty for everyone who enjoys turning household items into toys!

For those who can’t wait, the Deer Shed Festival Science Team (with Andy Chipling) will be running a workshop at the Maker Faire in Newcastle. From simple designs through to elaborately engineered masterpieces, this workshop will have something for all ages and abilities. It’s also a great chance to get some top tips before the main event in July!

If creating stationary-based aviation seems a little delicate, never fear! Launching things into the air is something Deer Shed Festival is passionate about too. Forget spud guns, Deer Shed has a potato cannon and if that doesn’t seem crazy enough, Terry will also be returning with his infamous Trebuchet (a 20ft long throw-arm) tucked away in (what used to be) a quiet corner of the field to launch a variety of things through the sky.

After learning how to knock things down, why not learn how to build things back up? Whether visitors want to go back to basics with Lolly Stick Towers, Wrekshop, and Meccano, or right into the twenty-first century with electrics, soldering, and circuit boards, there’s something for everyone. Making practical machines that actually work is a very rewarding, and enjoyable part of Deer Shed Festival’s science tent.

For those who prefer to keep their feet on the ground, Deer Shed Festival is giving its visitors chance to learn what’s really going over our heads with workshops from the Met Office and plenty of opportunities to gaze at the stars. As for the stars who walk among us? Ableton’s music production workshop, or Teesside University’s green screen will give any aspiring artistes an excellent taste of the science behind the entertainment industry.

Fans of the Deer Shed Festival will also be thrilled to find that our friends at Teesside University Forensics will be reviving their much-loved murder mystery from last year, this time taking the mystery “Up in the Air”. This is a wonderful opportunity for the Sherlocks out there to take a stab (pun intended) at solving a murder mystery.

With the fabulous support from Teesside University, who are supplying 3D Plane Modelling, Green Screen, and Starlab as well as the forensics, the science tent at the Deer Shed Festival this year is shaping up to be the best yet.

Ticket price structure

3^rd tier adult full weekend ticket (16+) £119 + booking fee

Released 1 March 2015

4^th tier adult full weekend ticket (16+) £129 + booking fee

Not released

Child full weekend ticket (6 to 15) £35+ booking fee

Child full weekend ticket (3 to 5) £5 + booking fee

Child full weekend ticket (0 to 2) Free

Sunday night camping per tent/live-in vehicle £40 + booking fee

(Only valid for holders of full weekend tickets)