Bluedot is the festival where science, space and music come together and meet in the Cheshire countryside. Just outside the massive Jodrell Bank Observatory, to be precise, which I learnt at is the third biggest movable telescope in the world. Every day’s a school day.
The Bluedot team had an amazing week of live music and science talks planned, it’s just a shame Mother Nature had other ideas and decided to open the heavens onto the North West of England. How rude of her.
As a 9-5 worker, I was planning to be there all weekend but as it got to Friday evening and I was sleepy, so I joined in on the fun Saturday morning. I was already jealous of the previous day’s sun and blue skies because straight away we were met with heavy rain and cars having to be towed out of mud. Oh, joy.
Now this part might be confusing to some (it’s confusing still to me), but after successfully traversing the soggy car park I went ahead and hopped out of my car, in Converse. Big mistake.
The mud in ConverseThe muddy mire by the afternoonCredit: The Manc Group
Once my shoes were two inches deep in the sludge I gave up trying to ballerina on the dry parts of the grass and got fully into what Bluedot 2023 had to offer.
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And there was plenty of it.
Walking into Jodrell Bank, I was teleported into another world; a world where science fiction characters had all got together for one big party. Straight away I was greeted by an R2-D2 casually rolling up on me, and across the way were stormtroopers accosting a woman trying to buy socks at the gift shop.
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There were people with UFO umbrellas, babies with alien ears, astronauts and more. Everyone was head to toe in their best sci-fi get-up. Here were some of our favourites:
First on my music schedule was Manc band, Nightbus, who are still in the early days with just two singles out at the moment, but already gathering a lot of attention, including ours.
There was plenty more post-punk on the schedule today, including one band I caught after just hearing them from afar, Treeboy & Arc, who I really enjoyed watching.
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My favourite part of the festival was the main stage and just listening to the live music whilst occasionally glimpsing up at the gigantic Jodrell Observatory just beside it — it’s truly breathtaking in size and engineering.
In between the music, there was plenty of chance to check out everything else Bluedot 2023 had on show and after a short walk, I found myself wrangled into a group of people who were all getting a tour around the observatory and watching it reposition itself was mind-blowing to see.
It was great to see how many kids were soaking up all the fun as the festival was filled with families too, from parents dancing with their babies at the main stage, to the groups of kids participating in lightsaber training and running around with balloon sabres for the remainder of the day.
I definitely recommend this festival for next year if you’re a family with younger ones wanting to get out of the house and since it always aligns with the school holidays, Bluedot is a great place to spend a weekend, especially if the sun manages to stay out longer than an afternoon.
Unfortunately for everyone, including the Bluedot team, who tried their best to prevent a mud bath by putting bark and walkways down, it was a complete washout.
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And even though as the day went on and the bands got better and better, with incredible sets from Snapped Ankles, Dry Cleaning, Folly Group and Pavement, who closed the main stage, there was no doubting the impact the rain and mud had on the festival.
Where perhaps if it was Parklife you would’ve seen a younger generation mud sliding and various other shenanigans, this festival had plenty of older families and couples and even though most people just ‘got on with it’ the conditions were simply too much and that led to the cancellation of Sunday tickets.
As you can probably guess and much to my sadness, I didn’t go on Sunday but still, the Saturday of Bluedot 2023 was brilliant.
For anyone still unfamiliar with this wonderful annual event, Bluedot is a science festival which has multiple talks on the consequences of global warming and a whole exhibition titled ‘Our Fragile Space’ which is on the negative impact we’re having even in space.
So it’s kind of poignant and ironic to me that this whole festival, which is trying to teach people about the ramifications of global warming and our impact on the Earth, is completely washed out by a month’s worth of rainfall in the height of summer.
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People will just say, “That’s just English weather for you”, but if that’s not an anymore obvious indication of global warming already impacting us while you’ve got wildfires burning over in Greece, then we don’t know what is.
Grab yourself a Bluedot 2024 ticket, attend some of those talks and, hopefully, we’ll see you there.
From drone shows to free ice lollies – what went down at Parklife 2025
Daisy Jackson
It’s been a few days since Parklife 2025 wrapped up, and now that we’ve all caught up on sleep we’re looking back on some of the highlights you might’ve missed.
With such a stacked line-up of live music, it would be impossible to have seen everything – from that sizzling final set from Charli XCX to Morgan Seatree’s emotional hometown show, plus viral sensation Interplanetary Criminal filling Matinee and D.O.D. getting the whole Big Top dancing.
One moment that you couldn’t possibly have missed if you were on the ground at Parklife festival was a surprise drone show which dazzled overhead on Saturday night.
As rap legend 50 Cent wrapped up his huge headline set on The Valley stage, and The Hangar came alive to the sound of Pawsa, fans got an extra special treat way up in the skies.
Hundreds of drones came together in an impressive, illuminated aerial display, starting with a 10-second countdown that stopped festival-goers in their tracks.
The drones then flew in formation to create iconic shapes like a yellow JD Sports duffle bag, an adidas shoebox, and the shape of a slowly-rotating Climacool trainer – and what a trainer it is.
The adidas drone show on Saturday nightadidas handed out Climacool-branded lollies and slushies50 Cent on The Valley stageadidas handed out Climacool-branded lollies and slushies
That wasn’t the only bit of attention the Climacool footwear got at Parklife either – thankful fans were treated to free Climacool branded ice lollies and slushies on their way into the festival on Saturday.
As the sun beat down on Heaton Park (bar the odd brief downpour, classic Manchester), adidas and JD Sports arrived in an ice cream truck with the coolest drop at the festival.
There was a helping hand from social media sensation Yombo to hype up the crowd before the festival had even got started.
The Climacool has a textile lining and upper work, with a perforated midsole to allow airflow and keep your feet fresh – perfect for any city adventure (and pretty perfect for a day at Parklife, we discovered).
If the Climacool trainers have caught your eye – either in the sky, at the Climacool ice cream truck, or on social media – then the good news is you can now shop them for yourselves.
First Look: Fitzpatrick’s – Stockport’s new Irish Bar gets off to a stunning start
Danny Jones
Stockport has a brand new Irish bar as the growing Greater Manchester trend continues, with Fitzpatrick’s officially debuting to the public on Thursday, 19 June.
Taking over the former Bask site just outside the train station, Fitzpatrick’s is the borough’s answer to American sports bar meets an Irish pub and grill, with live music, a wide array of food and more.
We had the privilege of walking in on opening day, and the place was absolutely packed to the rafters from the off, and we didn’t even stay until the end. More fool us…
We had a grand auld time seeing @fitzstockport open their doors yesterday evening. ☘️
As you can see, it hasn’t taken them any time at all to get an atmosphere going; good weather on their inaugural day, but the free-flowing beer, classic pub food flying out of the kitchen, and musicians reeling off classic Irish folk music did most of the heavy lifting.
Plus, that beer garden and covered outdoor terrace area are pretty perfect in any weather, to be fair.
The scran on their maiden evening mainly consisted of pizza, chips and other easy-to-serve-up plates as they gradually ease into the first week or so of service, but with a full menu of burgers, pies, breakfasts and even Sunday roasts to come, we’re very excited to try the full gamut.
Regardless, the staff were pulling pints like pros, John himself had plenty of involvement greeting people and getting behind the bar, and the atmosphere was buzzing from minute one.
ln fact, that was arguably the best part about it all: there was that genuine feeling of a new community cornerstone being born, with the well-known Stopfordian reeling off names and recognising what seemed like almost every face that walked through the door.
You don’t get that everywhere.
A lay of the land at Fitzpatrick’s Stockport. (Credit: The Manc Eats)
Although this was their first proper day of trading, they had already gauged the kind of crowds they could expect by soft launching with friends and family last week.
That being said, as mentioned, there was a real tight-knit, community feel to the place, full of County kits, young families and older couples alike, all of whom seemed to be dovetailing together as if the pub had always been around.
SK is often dubbed one of those places where everyone kind of knows everyone, even despite how big the town is as a whole, and this definitely felt like proof of that perception.
Of course, there is some familiarity with the space having previously been Bask, but the location of the stage, a newly decked out bar and the large jumbo-tron style TV set-up for live sport in the centre of the room (providing prime viewing from virtually all angles) have made a big difference.
Based solely on the hordes of people that piled into the place the second the doors opened, we can’t wait to see what the gaff is like once it’s in so-called ‘full swing’. John and his team might just be on to something big here.
Speaking to The Manc, he said: “As a local lad, I wanted to put something into the space that reflects a lot of my history and culture. Music, food, sport and a great atmosphere are all things I love, so I wanted to reflect that in this gorgeous space.”
Open 4-11 from Tuesday to Thursday, 2pm until late on Fridays, and the same only from 1pm at weekends, we can imagine Stockport punters are about to be spending a lot of time in Fitzpatrick’s.
Dean Hadcock -
24th July 2023 
