Four days of cosmic culture are beaming into Jodrell Bank this weekend.
This year’s Bluedot line-up includes headline performances from Grace Jones, Roisin Murphy, Pavement and Leftfield.
There’ll also be Dr Who 60th anniversary celebrations, a range of fascinating science talks and a huge offering of arts, culture and foodie experiences.
It’s taking place from 20th to 23rd July underneath the iconic Lovell Telescope near Holmes Chapel.
The award-winning festival fuses music and science, and this year sees its sixth outing – promising the UK’s most intergalactic festival experience.
‘Space Carnival’ is this year’s theme – and the cosmic fun will reach its climax with the Space Carnival Parade where the festival is encouraging all in attendance to don their best space-themed fancy dress for a celestial celebration of music and dance that will make its way through Jodrell Bank.
Festival founder Ben Robinson said: “We can’t wait to welcome fans of music and cosmic culture to this year’s incredible space carnival that is Bluedot 2023 for the festival’s sixth instalment.
“We’re over the moon to have put together one of our most expansive and best ever programmes of music, science arts and culture to date and can’t wait for festival goers to come and experience a glorious weekend of cosmic culture.”
Music
Max Richter will open the show in the coveted Thursday evening slot accompanied by The BBC Concert Orchestra performing Richter’s Voices and Recomposed.
Friday evening will see electropop queen Roisin Murphy get the party started in her first-ever festival headline show and Lo-fi pioneers Pavement headline Saturday with their only UK performance for 2023, while cultural icon Grace Jones will close the festival on Sunday.
Additional music highlights across the weekend include Django Django, Black Country, New Road, Dry Cleaning, Tinariwen, Sorry, CMAT, Nubya Garcia, Henge, Pictish Trail, The Go! Team, and Mercury Prize winning Young Fathers.
Bluedot will also host a special late night electronic music line up of international electronic artists, parties and AV installations.
Multiple Mercury Prize nominees Leftfield headline Friday’s late night at Bluedot whilst David Holmes will perform a genre-spanning DJ set.
Electronic pioneers 2manydjs close Saturday’s late night in the Orbit arena and the weekend will culminate with Max Cooper soundtracking an ambient AV art piece projected on the surface of the Lovell Telescope, following an immersive 3D/AV show in the Orbit arena.
Legendary DJ Annie Mac will wrap up this year’s electronic music programme as she headlines the Sunday night closing party – with additional late night highlights across the weekend including DJ Elkka, Erol Alkan, Georgia and Future Utopia.
Science
Expanding festival goer’s minds for the festival’s sixth year, Bluedot’s science programme will feature headline talks from BBC Sky At Night’s Chris Lintott and Maggie Aderin-Pocock; representatives from the UK Space Agency, NASA collaborators Hassell Studio, the Square Kilometre Array Observatory, and Jodrell Bank and the Open University’s Monica Grady.
Specialist talk topics and science highlights will feature deep dives into the Northern Lights, solar flares, pulsars and the Big Bang plus a look at the world’s largest particle collide with Collision: Stories From The Science of CERN, a talk from the British Antarctic Survey and many more.
Dr Who
In a celebratory nod to Dr Who’s 60th anniversary, Bluedot has programmed a host of talks and performances across the weekend which will include special guests, the Radiophonic Workshop who will bring their brand-new live show, Dawn of the Doctors to the festival.
Writer, actor and Dr Who expert Toby Hadoke will curate a series of talks and panels including a conversation on life as a Whovian – Anticipointment, with Radio 4’s Robin Ince and Why Do We Love This Silly Programme So Much with Dr Tom Attah from Leeds Arts University, Jodrell Bank astrophysicist Dr Emma Alexander along with comedian and Dr Who actor Bethany Black.
Comedy and culture
Bluedot’s comedy and culture line-ups include Irish comedian David O’Doherty and two-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee, Nish Kumar.
Festival goers can immerse themselves in an expansive range of cultural offerings including a David Bowie special edition of Adam Buxton’s Bug, a screening and in-conversation with Moonage Daydream creator Brett Morgan, and an afternoon with White Rabbit Books featuring talks with Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite, 90s icon Miki Berenyi and Lias Saoudi of the Fat White Family.
Family
Bluedot’s family line up will welcome the outrageously fun Brainiac Live where fearless scientists will conduct the experiments kids were never allowed to do at home live on stage.
Kidocracy makes its Bluedot debut, with a hilarious and thought-provoking interactive theatre show covering politics.
Big Fish Little Fish and its cosmic disco return too, and kids can also learn the ways of the force with Jedi lightsaber training.
The Pop-Up Puppet Cinema will condense classic movies into punchy live puppets shows to comedic effect and the Actual Reality Arcade game zone will bring classic life-sized interactive games to the festival for a slice of retro and nostalgic fun!
Food
The VIP Village will be curated by Manchester based food charity Eatwell and culinary offerings will see some of the very best restaurants in the region including Dishoom, Caroline Martins, Where the Light Gets In and Another Hand.
