When it first opened in 2018 Black Deer Festival was an ambitious, if not outright audacious event with an astonishingly modest attendance of around 4000 guests on its busiest day. It was a surreal privilege to witness artists like Iron & Wine, Jason Isbell and Passenger headlining such an intimate open-air occasion. Surreal, but unsustainable. Yet when the festival returned the following year, word had spread and ticket sales nearly tripled! The site and the atmosphere were transformed and Black Deer became a fully-fledged fixture on the UK festival calendar, almost overnight. What happened next; 2020, 2021, we know. The festival "took a break" with the promise of its third year being bigger and better than ever, and ... it was pretty great!
The setting in Eridge Park is beautiful: From the main entrance and general campsite you can glimpse the extent of the site nestled among lush stands of enormous oak trees, with golden hills rolling out in every direction. At only 15 minutes drive from Tunbridge Wells, an hour's train ride out of London, it feels like the middle of nowhere. With limited mobile reception too, it feels like the middle of nowhere! The perfect place to immerse yourself in three days of non-stop live music, dancing, eating, drinking and socialising.
On the point of mobile coverage, the festival operates a cashless payment system for all bars, food vendors and retailers, so loading credit onto your account before arriving ensures you don't need to rely on signal for managing your finances. You can of course top-up at the kiosks onsite, if you don't mind a bit of patient queuing. Communication is obviously a whole other concern, though the site is reasonably compact without being crowded so you're never too far from finding friends.
The stages are managed precisely to schedule - something that shouldn't be taken for granted - so arranging meeting times and locations based on the timetable is simple. The site offers a range of excellent quality catering within the arena and campsites (shout out to the fabulous folks at Canny Coffee who were a delight to do business with first thing each morning) and the pricing is standard, around £10-12 per dish. For meat-lovers and BBQ fans in particular there's a good selection; fries loaded with spicy pulled meats, succulent ribs and gourmet burgers, as well as all the Live Fire cooking demonstrations. The hotdog and chilli eating competitions were less appetising to witness but the commentary was at least entertaining.
A sense of community and culture has been integral to the growing reputation of Black Deer as a festival of Americana and this is evident in each distinct area of the arena. Outside The Roadhouse an array of vintage cars and custom motorbikes lends the place an air of gritty rebelliousness which, somewhat ironically, drew crowds all day and night. Meanwhile, inside the venue saw some of the loudest rock, roots and blues acts of the weekend, including His Lordship and Franky Perez who were names on everyone's lips following their energetic performances here.
While counter-culture and culinary niches were being entertained at one end of the arena, the opposite side hosted a wealth of activities to keep underage attendees occupied, ranging from the very popular slacklining and skateboarding workshops, a rock-climbing tower and zip wire, lawn games, instrument workshops and an interactive wooden construction site. The Young Folks area is also well sheltered among trees and tents which made a nice retreat for those with very young children wanting to escape the elements (a very relevant consideration, more on this in a moment).
Whether it was in response to feedback from previous years or perhaps a sign of the times, there seemed to be fewer traders occupying the previous "Black Deer Mercantile" area. Nevertheless, bohemian festival fashion and typical country attire was popular and these stalls added to the community atmosphere of The Outpost area adjacent Haley's Bar which also encompassed a silent disco, axe-throwing and the Arkansas Porch Sessions. As one of the major supporting partners of the festival, Arkansas Tourism hosted daily unplugged performances by three charismatic and talented storytellers native to the state: Dylan Earl, Willi Carlisle and Jude Brothers. While each artist delivered a full set over at The Roadhouse Acoustic Stage to rapt audiences these more intimate showcases were a real demonstration of the power of country and folk songs to draw people in without fancy embellishment or even amplification.
Praise should go to festival organisers for the abundance of drinking water taps and well-serviced loos within the main arena (another success that can't be taken for granted), although the campsites experienced water shortages every day which was less-than desirable, tending towards downright unpleasant. Friday was absolutely scorching sunshine with temps in the mid-30s while Saturday followed this up with sickly humid conditions, ultimately building to a lighting storm that forced the premature closure of the festival during that night's headline performances. Credit for the calm but rapid evacuation of the arena should go to patrons and security staff, who ensured the ground condition was near pristine when the arena reopened on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, some patrons were left waiting out the storm, dangerously unprotected at the shuttle bus departure point. Hopefully organisers will learn from this incident and seek to implement some kind of shelter for future events, to ensure the safety and comfort of attendees in all weathers.
And so, on to the music:
If each day of the festival could be summed up by a single emoji it would read "flames", "lightning bolt", "prayer hands". Weather aside, Friday's line-up was a hot one. Returning favourite Irish Mythen was the first voice to resonate out of The Ridge Stage. Her powerful delivery elevated the emotion of songs like Tullamore Blues while her humour and sincerity engaged seemingly everyone within earshot. Alongside her sat Aussie transplant Emily Barker and Virginia native Caroline Spence, the trio exchanging songs and stories "in the round", warming up for each of their own main sets later. Barker included songs from her most recent album A Dark Murmuration of Words, a collection of songs inspired by climate change, sometimes devastating, sometimes optimistic, and every bit stunning in her clear, sweet voice. They were eventually joined by the delayed Imelda May who made up missed rounds with turns of song and poetry, appropriating the intimate setting to showcase her more tender side before unleashing a blistering Main Stage set of full on blues rock, soul and gothic pop.
Franky Perez opened the Main Stage with a set that incorporated buoyant, crunchy guitar riffs and a horn section; music you could dance to, or rather, music you couldn't help but dance to. On The Ridge Stage Caroline Spence gave a more subdued and intimate performance that was every bit as soul-stirring. Her songcraft is the gold standard in Americana and her latest album, True North, is a tonic for modern life. On songs like Scale These Walls and the Lori McKenna co-write The Next Good Time she displays a vulnerability that feels almost too raw for public display, while underscoring the power and strength that real honesty and insight affords us. Special mention has to go to the delicate guitar and pedal steel accompaniment of CJ Hillman who embellishes Spence's songs with such intuitive grace every time they perform together.
While songwriting is always at the core of the genre it was a thrill to see so many full bands elevating great songs and performances across the weekend. Friday saw the likes of William The Conqueror, Jinda Biant and Israel Nash tearing up stages with passionate, guitar-driven, bluesy rock. It was a relentless afternoon and evening building to Shovels & Rope's magnetic roots rock show. The duo are as enthralling to watch as they are to listen to and The Ridge Stage overflowed with fans eager to get a glimpse of the dynamic pair as they worked through songs from their latest record Manticore and a rapid-fire selection of hits from their catalogue. Faced with a headline choice between James, Foy Vance and the Ozark Holler Hootenanny (featuring Dylan Earl, Willi Carlisle, Jude Brothers and guests), the "sensible" decision was made to wind down, after a long and loud first day ,with alt-folk trio Wildwood Kin at Clash Magazine's Roadhouse Takeover. It was a very good decision as their audience was immediately enveloped in a sonic chrysalis, emerging nourished by the beauty of the Devon trio's divine harmonies. The set opener Headed for the Water was enough to make you forget all about your sunburn and muscle fatigue for a few hours.
There was a density and closeness in the air on Saturday, for sure, but there was also magic. The Ridge Stage once again opened with a Songwriter Session and for anyone asking "What was the best set you saw at the festival?", dear reader, it was this. Cam, Kezia Gill, Lade Nade and Robert Vincent. There's an unexpected and rare joy in seeing a lifelong memory unfold before your eyes, though this is surely at least half the premise of live music, and what these four artists delivered in just 75 minutes was worth waiting almost three years to witness. Cam opened the show, unleashing her other-woman's-apology-anthem, Diane, with only acoustic guitar and her powerhouse vocal setting an impossibly high standard to follow. And yet Kezia Gill matched that energy with her own romantic take on a good time in Nashville, Country Song, but not before inviting Cam to join her in a brief duet of Diane, admitting it was one of her favourite songs ever. The goosebumps have still not subsided from this moment. Embracing her own unique charm and charisma, Lady Nade drew the audience into an exquisite rendition of her song Wildfire, consciously opening up deeper emotional realms with every subsequent round of songs. Robert Vincent built on Nade's foundation of candid honesty with a healthy balance of self-deprecation and the cutting social commentary of Conundrum. Songs about love, grief, self-acceptance, guilt and wonder, and the stories behind them, offered with unhurried sincerity; each one forming a layer of healing and reconciliation around fans whose hearts have been starved of this kind of intimate human connection for the last two years. Having the night's headliners all cut short was disappointing but if you saw this set you got your money's worth out of the weekend.
Simeon Hammond Dallas is a star in the making, at least if the music industry could contain her effervescent and raunchy country-blues into something as sleekly definable as "star in the making" music. Her performance on the Ridge Stage displayed the confident independence of spirit that imbues her songs with authenticity and the authority that comes with lived experience. One to watch, if you weren't already.
Another breathtaking performance on the day came from the offensively talented, instrument swapping four-piece Darlingside, blending songs from their most recent LP Fish Pond Fish with new arrangements of older favourites like Go Back and The Ancestor. It is a delight to see this band blindside unsuspecting festival audiences everywhere they go; even among the musically savvy crowd of Black Deer they gathered new devotees to their unique brand of quirky folk.
Courtney Marie Andrews shone iridescent in both her attire and performance on the Main Stage. Her set showcased new songs from her upcoming album Loose Future while somewhat laying to rest the Old Flowers era of heartache and disillusionment that listeners have embraced since that albums release in the summer of 2020. Her all-star band featured Norwegian Spellemannprisen award-winning country artist Ole Kirkeng, percussionist Dominic Billett and multi-instrumentalist Jerry Bernhardt, each contributing effortless grace and gravitas to her songs as required. Andrews was typically bewitching, whether alone at the piano or with her band, particularly on the explosive set closer Near You.
It seems rude to ignore the biggest names on the Main Stage; Wilco and The Waterboys both impressed with very different performances that represented their respective audiences and musical styles. The pairing also demonstrated a genius bit of scheduling, especially given the meteorological event to come, in having a UK-exclusive performance followed up with a multi-generational, crowd-pleasing but relatively ubiquitous, live act. Were we disappointed not to dance arm-in-arm with strangers to The Whole of the Moon? Absolutely! Will there be another opportunity, perhaps this year? Taking nothing for granted these days, it's still quite possible.
Sunday's proceedings began slightly earlier than previous days with the jubilant Powerhouse Gospel Choir blessing the day after the storm with the festival's annual Gospel Brunch - including free waffles! Those seeking an alternative spiritual experience could turn to the mellow, instrumental glory of Yasmin Williams on the Main Stage. Her transcendent playing pairs perfectly with the gentlest midsummer sunshine over verdant countryside, and fresh-brewed coffee.
The final, spellbinding Songwriter Session brought together honey-voiced Canadian William Prince, English folk-singer and guitarist John Smith and Pennsylvania-via-Brighton duo Native Harrow. Each of these acts can silence a room in their own right - and did, later in the day - so as stage companions they were exquisitely understated. The pleasure of the exchange and a mutual respect, from songwriter to songwriter and between artists and audience, was very nearly tangible.
Sunday was steeped in reverence: Blue Rose Code's (I Wish You) Peace in Your Heart and jazz-infused rendition of Amazing Grace; the mere existence of Van Morrison and his Caledonian soul; and the deep philosophy and theology that informs the music of Hiss Golden Messenger all contributed a welcome serenity to the final day of the festival. That was perhaps disrupted a little by the raucous closing performance of Talisk in Haley's Bar but no-one would complain in the presence of such musical genius.
Review by Kendall Wilson