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Bluedot festival 2022 – line-up, tickets, dates and everything else you need to know

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 20th July 2022

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Read more: LOOKFANTASTIC is opening a pop-up shop at the Trafford Centre this week

How does the cashless system work?

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.

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

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Liam is paying a subtle nod to another member of the Gallagher family in the Oasis reunion set

Danny Jones Danny Jones Liam Gallagher tribute to dog Buttons during Oasis reunion gig Cardiff

In yet another cute and rather unexpected moment about the Oasis reunion set during the first two nights in Cardiff, Liam Gallagher paid a lovely tribute to an unsung member of the musical family: his adopted dog, Buttons.

Because rock stars do whatever they want.

That’s right, while most people were understandably keeping their eyes firmly fixed on Liam and Noel as they still try and get to grips with the fact that they’re both actually there, on stage, in the flesh, other eagle-eyed viewers noticed a subtle nod playing on the massive telly behind them.

Flashing up right in the middle big screen was a technicolour image of none other than Buttons himself, whose adorable little face appeared during ‘Roll With It’ on night one at the Principality Stadium.

This video from Niall Harbison – the person who was responsible for putting the two together in the first place – was likely something the animal rescuer was made aware of ahead of time, but it’s nevertheless still a very lovely touch.

For anyone unfamiliar with the full story, Niall has spent years saving dogs and other pets from poverty and the street over in Thailand, and one of those was Buttons.

During a visit from Liam and partner Debbie Gwyther (also his manager), the pair ended up being introduced to the pup and instantly fell in love.

Arranging to have what would soon be his favourite pet shipped over to the UK, he and LG have now been pretty much inseparable since September 2023.

This isn’t the only touching gesture seen so far on the Live ’25 tour:

Gallagher brothers pay touching tribute to Diogo Jota on first night of Oasis reunion tour
Buttons the dog wasn’t the only soul that Oasis paid tribute to.

The Burnage boys’ comeback was always going to be unforgettable, even if they just got up there and did little more than play the songs, but it’s extra touches like these that are helping make the memories even more special.

In the case of Niall, regardless of whether he knew this was going to happen or not, it must have been an incredible feeling to see one of the countless street dogs he’s saved, not only now rehomed and happy but quite literally getting his own moment in the spotlight.

There were a lot of little details we noticed on night one of Live ’25 in Cardiff, and who knows how many of them will remain in the set for the rest of the reunion tour, but it’s great to see Oasis being reactive and the crew going the extra mile.

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Featured Images — Niall Harbison (via X)

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What we know about Oasis’ Heaton Park reunion shows based on their first comeback gig in Cardiff

Danny Jones Danny Jones All the info we know about Oasis Live '25 reunion night 1 Cardiff

Ok, so there’s no more need to pinch ourselves or double-take every time we check our phone: Oasis aren’t just back together, they’ve now kicked off the reunion and following those incredible Cardiff scenes, we’re already thinking about what this means for their Heaton Park homecoming.

There simply isn’t a brick-and-mortar Manchester venue big enough to hold as many Manc fans as want, need and deserve to see them back on stage after waiting all this time, so it’s only fitting that barely a month on from Parklife, the massive outdoor space will welcome us all back to witness history.

Quite literally millions of people tuned into various livestreams on Friday evening to see Oasis return at the Principality Stadium, so lots of you will have already seen plenty from the colossal concert – including that bald bloke balancing a pint on his head – but there was, understandably, a lot to take in.

So, with that being said, here’s what we hope, we think, we know about Oasis’ highly anticipated Heaton Park shows based solely on the details we gleaned from Cardiff night one.

The timings (roughly)

For starters, one of the most important things fans will be hoping to know is when Oasis got back on stage, as well as the set times of the other ‘Live ’25‘ support acts.

Liam, as per usual, was the mouthier of the two Gallagher brothers and let the cat out of the bag early on X (Twitter), before being clearly told off by management and deleting the details shortly after; still, it was confirmed that the main event for Friday and Saturday night gets underway at 8:15pm.

However, these things are always subject to change, as both Richard Aschroft and Cast were slightly premature on night one in Cardiff, and who knows what other arenas will be like for the rest of the reunion tour?

Credit: Oasis (via Instagram)/Dianne Bourne (screenshot via X)

The Live ’25 setlist – or at least on night one

Another big debate online that has raged ever since the Oasis reunion was confirmed is the subject of what they’re going to play from their extensive catalogue.

Obviously, most people could rattle off most of the all-time favourites and cobbble together a pretty decent ‘greatest hits’ of Oasis setlist, but people have been more concerned with what the opener, closing track, and encore will be.

Having watched all of these moments back multiple times already, we can confirm the first track was the classic intro ‘F***in’ in the Bushes’, as many fans suspected, followed by ‘Hello’ as the first full song, rather fittingly.

As for the last track in the main running order, the crowd got to bounce up and down to ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’ before the legendary ‘Champagne Supernova’ beckoned the very end of the first night in Cardiff.

They’ll still be reactive

That being said, this inaugural comeback show was somewhat of a pilot for the rest of the ‘Live ’25 world tour, which now totals more than 40 dates, and any good artist knows that tweaking the setlist from show to show can be key to not only to success, but keeping things fresh for you and the audience.

As a result, we wouldn’t be surprised if you see Oasis mix things up as the nights roll on, especially when playing multiple gigs in the same city as they’re doing pretty much everywhere for this reunion.

That flexibility isn’t just limited to song choice either: Liam did his famous twist on the ‘Wonderwall’ lyrics and told the crowd, “There are many things that I would like to say to you, but I don’t speak Welsh”, and in case you haven’t seen it already, they also took a moment to honour a late Liverpool star.

Gallagher brothers pay touching tribute to Diogo Jota on first night of Oasis reunion tour
There were lots of little details on night one in Cardiff, but this was a very nice touch from Oasis.

A bigger focus on production than ever

The glimpse at the AV presentation seen above is just a small taster too. From the various clips we’ve seen on social media over the last 24 hours or so, Oasis aren’t just back playing music together, but they’ve levelled significantly in terms of production and stage design.

In fairness, so too has the music indusry as a whole – you’d be hard-pressed to found a tech team that could pull of the pre-gig light-show they put on in the days leading up to night one at the Principality – but it was still cool to see the greatest rock band in the world be given a proper big budget backdrop.

For instance, you can see what flashed on the gigantic screens behind them as they walked out in front of more than 70,000 in Cardiff down below.

What a way to make an entrance…

Blues, through and through

Now, if you’ve ever been to see either of the brothers’ solo shows, you’ll know that football and, more specifically, references to Man City, often feature at some point.

Noel, in particular, has maintained a strong City presence in his set, be it the blue colour palette, the MCFC badge, or even a tall cut-out of manager Pep Guardiola half during most High Flying Birds gigs.

Cardiff night one was no different as his LG instructed the crowd to turn around and do the familiar ‘Poznan’ celebration regularly seen up in the stands of the Etihad Stadium.

The bitterness had turned to banter

It was bits of comedy like this that’s been one of the biggest part we’ve missed about Oasis; both Liam and Noel have always been very humorous in their own ways over the years, but they were never funnier than in those old clips you see of them cracking each other up in their younger days.

Despite being estranged for more than a decade and a half and who knows how many years of bad blood overall, they look to have at least put it to one side and what was once a combative back and forth from a distance has circled back around to brotherly banter – or at least we hope it has.

We’re not going to pretend they absolutely adore all of a sudden, but they’re at least trying and recognising each other’s roles.

They actually seem to like each other again

As you can see, those snaps of them smiling during the first reunion photo shoot back together don’t appear to be just for show.

Seeing the two of them walk out holding hands sent the internet into an absolute frenzy of emotion and had people joking that they were finally going to message their own troublesome relative and at least try to mend fences.

But that was just one small moment.

The duo have always admired and respected their respective talents, but for the first time in even longer than the 16-year hiatus itself, it seems like there’s some genuine love there again. See for yourself:

They’re still as massive as they ever were – if not more so

All this is to say that, in short, Oasis’ first comeback show in Cardiff isn’t just the start of the ‘Live ’25 reunion tour that will span the globe, it’s also confirmation of something people began to question in their lengthy absence…

They really are the biggest and, in so many people’s opinions (including our own), the greatest rock band of all time.

From what we can tell, it feels like one of those watershed music moments where you have be there in person to truly see and believe it – not to be part of some exclusive ‘I was there’ comeback, but because we can’t thing of any other reunion that has had this kind of impact.

Roll on the five nights at Heaton Park and strap in, folks, because you will never forget it.

Read more:

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Oasis (via X)/Finnlay K (via Instagram)

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