Black Deer Festival 2024: Americana Comes to Kent

An award-winning staple of the UK festival circuit every Summer, Black Deer Festival returned to Eridge Park in Kent to bring with it some of the best and biggest acts from across the Americana and Country circuit alongside a whole host of other attractions including food, drink, artisan wares and custom-built motorcycles all paying homage to the best in American culture.

Taking place over six stages and three days, the 2024 event saw over 40 acts a day, ranging from huge arena headlining superstars like Joe Bonamassa and Sheryl Crow to a whole raft of upcoming names, entertaining this weekend which has something for family members of all ages, young and old. Our photographer Kevin O’Sullivan headed down to Kent to join in this weekend of fun and you can check out some of his photos here.

Setting the bar high for the weekend ahead, headlining the main stage on the Friday night at Black Deer was none other than American blues rock guitar legend Joe Bonamassa. A man who fills arenas across the world, Bonamassa was preceded on the main stage with a supporting cast which included British country/rock favourites The Shires, Courtney Barnett who has been seen supporting rock megastars Foo Fighters recently and Jade Bird. Take a leisurely stroll away from the main stage to one of the multiple more intimate stages situated around the site and you’ll have found a whole host of rising and established talent including Turin Brakes, When Rivers Meet, Nick Waterhouse, and many more, providing enough to keep the crowds both young and old entertained for the first day.

So, how do you follow someone like Joe Bonamassa? Well, having set standards high for the weekend with the first of their huge headliners, the Black Deer Festival team pull it out of the bag with another world-beating headliner in the form of Sheryl Crow. Another massive name, Crow topped a bill which include crowd-pleasers like Seasick Steve, Jalen Ngonda, Ferris & Sylvester and Twinnie. If day one of Black Deer had set the bar high, Sheryl Crow and her fun-filled set wrapped up day two on a high having upped the ante for day three.

While it was fair to say Black Deer Festival was getting better and better, two superstar headliners topping two days of Americana and Country, it was up to Canadian-American singer, songwriter, Rufus Wainwright to wrap up this windswept weekend. Along with the relaxing tones of Wainwright, day three saw the likes of Ward Thomas and The Staves amongst the more prominent names on the bill while elsewhere the like of Muireann Bradley made sure the newcomers to the festival headed over making sure fans headed over talking about them as much as they were the headliners.

Black Deer Festival returns to Kent in 2025 and you can sign up for early bird news and ticket details via the Official Website.