Bluedot festival is finally set to return next weekend after two years of cancellations.
The much-loved festival marries together the worlds of music and science and takes place at arguably the most beautiful location in the UK.
Some of the world’s biggest artists will be performing beneath the awesome sight of the 76-metre-wide Lovell Telescope, which will be lit up with projections as a huge digital artwork for the first time.
Bluedot will be back between 21 and 24 July for its fifth instalment.
Here’s everything you need to know about the massive festival near Greater Manchester.
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Who are the headliners?
Bjork and Metronomy will both headline Bluedot 2022. Credit: Supplied
This year, headliners at Bluedot will include Groove Armada (as part of the band’s final live tour), post-rockers Mogwai, and Metronomy.
In a UK festival exclusive, Bjork will perform a uniquely commissioned performance with the Halle Orchestra to close the festival.
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Bluedot’s now-traditional opening concert on the Thursday evening will see Mercury-nominated Hannah Peel and Paraochestra take to the stage.
Also confirmed on the bill are psychedelic space rockers Spiritualized, current chart-toppers Yard Act, Warp Records mainstay Squarepusher, multi-instrumentalist composer Anna Meredith, the legendary likes of A Certain Ratio and Tim Burgess, and techno producer and creator of the official theme for the 2023 Women’s World Cup Kelly Lee Owens.
Bluedot 2022’s science programme will welcome key speakers including Radio 4’s Jam Al-Khalili, British filmmaker David Olusoga, space scientist Monica Grady, and many more.
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Comedians such as Desiree Burch, Olga Koch, Robin Ince and Ahir Shah will also be making appearances as part of the culture programme.
How much are tickets?
Bluedot Festival. Credit: Lucas Sinclair
There are still some tickets available for Bluedot festival.
Last release weekend tickets for adults are £205.25 including booking fees (then it’s £87 for 11-15 year olds, and £27.50 for children aged between six and 10 years old).
If you want to add on early Thursday entry, it’s £31.90 for adults.
You can also add on access to the VIP Village for £110.00 including booking fees.
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Where is Bluedot festival and how do I get there?
Bluedot Festival. Credit: George Harrison
Bluedot takes place at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, a UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
If you’re making your own way there, you’ll need to use the postcode SK11 9DW.
There are also coach travel packages available with National Express from cities around the UK.
What are the gate times?
The weekend campsite will open from midday on Thursday 21 July for those with a Thursday add-on ticket. For everyone else, it will open from 9am on the Friday.
For Friday, Saturday and Sunday, gates to the festival will be open between 9am and 9pm.
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What’s the camping situation?
Bluedot Festival. Credit: Scott Salt
There are several camping options to choose from at Bluedot, and general weekend tickets include access to the standard camping site.
There are also a limited number of boutique campsites at The Colony, which are selling out quick – you can browse remaining availability at discoverthebluedot.com/accommodation.
Bluedot has included family-only areas within the standard campsite for those bringing children, and space for live-in vehicles.
Bluedot is a fully cashless festival across its bars, food stands, merchandise and other points of sale, in a bit to improve customer experience with faster service and shorter queue times.
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Unlike 2019, the festival won’t be operating a payment wristband system and will instead just be using standard payment methods.
That means all major credit and debit cards can be used, either as contactless or chip and pin, as well as wearable forms of payment like Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Featured image: Lucas Sinclair
Audio
Oasis promoters drop biggest Knebworth hint yet after securing license around key date
Danny Jones
Not that we’re the type to get carried away, but we’ll confess that our curiosity, interest and general levels of anticipation have been piqued, as Oasis’ main promoters have recently renewed the license to host events at the infamous Knebworth.
My word, is this it? Like the reunion, is it ACTUALLY going to happen?…
We’re sure the raw, uncontrollable excitement will come should it be fully confirmed, but for now, all we know is that our colleagues in music media, SJM Concerts, have renewed the land in and around Knebworth Park and House for live entertainment once again.
Moreover, the company have also done so on a rather fitting date decades on from the original and legendary outdoor gigs.
As can be found on the planning application section of the North Hertfordshire Council website – the county in which the storied Britpop gigs took place – a fresh license to hold new events.
If/when the announcement happens, the already granted permission will allow for a capacity of up to 125,000 and a curfew of 3am.
We know the original Knebworth shows were beyond iconic, but let’s say this would be nailed on to be nothing short of absolutely box office.
Besides having also helped promote Oasis’ colossal Live ’25 reunion tour last summer, it’s also worth noting that they secured said license just over a week before the 30th anniversary of the pair of nights back in 1996: 10-11 August, to be specific.
The licence is said to have come into effect this past Saturday (1 Aug) and is believed to be indefinite.
What added even more fuel to the fire of these well-established rumours over the past year was when Baroness Sharon Taylor of Stevenage told the House of Lords the band would be playing FIVE whole nights at Knebworth in the future, before later clarifying that she was speaking in “hypothetical terms.”
All that being said, it’s fair to say we’ll be keeping a very keen eye on socials over the next few days, in particular, just in case.
The Manc has reached out to SJM for an official comment (surprise, surprise), but we are yet to receive a response regarding the matter.
Your silence speaks volumes, just saying.
This coming Monday, 10 August 2026, will mark the official 30th anniversary of Oasis at Knebworth 1996, and with the likes of ‘Wonderwall’ seeing a chart resurgence as the go-to England anthem at this year’s World Cup, we’re choosing to be optimistic. What about you?
Blossoms deliver most rock and roll performance in years as Declan McKenna joins them on stage
Danny Jones
Last night, we were fortunate enough to be there in the flesh not only to see Blossoms play a special anniversary show in Manchester, but to witness Declan McKenna join them on stage.
A tiny part of us was wondering if we’d see Rick Astley roll out into the venue, but let’s just say we’ll absolutely take this.
Celebrating a decade to the day since the release of the self-titled debut LP – yes, we feel old, too – Blossoms announced the one-off intimate show at The Deaf Institute, a venue they hadn’t played in 12 whole years (good lord…), and it served as much more than a night of nostalgia.
But we’ll admit, the highlight was almost certainly seeing the ‘Brazil’ and ‘British Bombs’ singer join Tom Ogden, Charlie Salt, Josh Dewhurst, Myles Kellock and Joe Donovan on stage for their smallest gig since god knows when.
We’ve gotten somewhat used to seeing the Enfield-born solo artist popping up at random venues across the country and even performing DJ sets at local pubs.
If you haven’t seen that Kylie Minogue clip before, you really need to…
However, we don’t think anyone in the crowd was expecting this cameo, let alone hearing them perform a co-written track off the new record live in front of the audience for the very first time.
As if all of this wasn’t already a bit bonkers and left-field, the song in question, entitled ‘Additional Driver’, was self-admittedly so surprising in SO many ways that Tom felt he needed to explain the full story behind it and why Declan shouted “shoulda got the 192” before they started playing.
Yes, in some kind of Greater Mancunian fever dream, we’ve finally got artists writing lyrics about the region’s most infamous bus route that we’re sure most, if not all of you, can relate to.
But it wasn’t just this moment that had us debating in our heads, ‘are they the best Manc or maybe in Northern band full stop going right now?’, it was seeing them slip so seamlessly back into the more straight-down-the-line indie rock from their first chapter of studio material that did it.
Everyone knows and loves the biggest bangers from that inaugural outing: ‘Getaway’, ‘Charlemagne’, ‘At Most a Kiss’, ‘Honey Sweet’, etc.; but it’s hard to forget just how quintessentially rock and roll tunes like ‘Blow Rose’, ‘Cut Me and I’ll Bleed’, ‘Texia’ and even some of the other deep cuts/early releases are.
Don’t get us wrong, we love how much the dressing up (musically and quite literally) they’ve done over the years as their production, creativity and experimentation has increased, but it’s always hard to beat that feeling you get when finding an artist’s first album – especially one as good as Blossoms‘.
In fairness, listening back to ‘Deep Grass’ all these years later, we’ll still remember how spacey, psychedelic and downright different that intro felt back in the day; it now feels like a fitting end to that maiden outing and the perfect jumping-off point for what has been a real sonic exploration ever since.
For a lad born in SK2 and lucky enough to have seen these lads right from the start, stuff like this will never not feel surreal to me.
Long live ‘Blossoms from Stockport‘, and roll on Songs From The Wedding Cake this October.
Daisy Jackson -
20th July 2022 
