Villagers and Dutch Uncles to light up Deer Shed Festival

They join a line-up already boasting headliners John Grant, Billy Brag and The Unthanks, with the critically-acclaimed Dutch Uncles and Du Blonde - the latest alias for Beth Jean Houghton – also now booked in to perform at the award-winning festival’s seventh outing between July 24-26.

Also revealed to be joining them are ‘shoegazey, indie rock’ band from LA, Francisco The Man; Irish duo, All Tvvins who recently supported Arcade Fire together with Holy Moly & The Crackers, a gypsy folk and roll band who opened for Jools Holland last summer.

Others already booked are favourites such as The Wedding Present, Damien Dempsey, Ibibio Sound Machine, Emmy The Great, The Felice Brothers, Dan Kroll, all of whom will be performing on one of the four festival stages across the three-day event.

With two Mercury nominated albums already under their belts and their third - Darling Arithmetic (which sees Conor O’Brien play all the instruments on the album as well as recording and mixing it himself) - due out next month, the announcement of the Villagers is an exciting one for the festival.

Manchester’s indie popsters Dutch Uncles have racked up four albums with their latest, ‘O Shudder’, being released last month when it was ranked by one critic as “the best realisation of their ambitions yet.”

Beth Jeans Houghton kicked up a storm when performing at Deer Shed three years ago. In her guise as Du Blonde, she will return - no doubt as feisty as ever - on the back of her second album ‘Welcome Back To The Milk’ which is due out in May.

Formed back in 2008, LA-based Francisco The Man have only just released their debut album, ‘Loose Ends’ - but it’s been well worth the wait, for many critics at least, as is their appearance at Deer Shed.

For the full line-up to date and the latest ticket information, head to the Deer Shed Festival website at www.deershedfestival.com