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.
Blossoms at O2 Ritz Manchester – five-night hometown residency is already a triumph
Daisy Jackson
Blossoms are a band who were born and forged here in Greater Manchester, and now they’re back retracing their steps with a five-night residency across the venues that launched them into the big leagues.
Their star has risen all the way to arena level and headline shows at Wythenshawe Park at this point, especially here in their hometown, so the chance to see them back in these cosy-ish little venues is special, and a little bizarre.
For night two of their landmark sold-out gig series, it was the turn of the O2 Ritz, that sweaty spot off Oxford Road where the floor bounces downstairs and you stick to the carpets upstairs.
Poetically, the first time I ever saw Blossoms was in this very room in 2016, when they had the mid-afternoon slot at Neighbourhood festival and the queue to get in went all the way back to St Peter’s Square.
Since those days, Blossoms have come a long, long way, and their live show has evolved and matured from five lads thrashing on their instruments to this well-oiled, hip-swaying, flares-wearing, chart-topping machine.
There’s even choreography now – how fancy!
A stand-out moment from the show is actually a song from their new, fifth studio album Gary, which is still barely eight weeks old.
A spoof recording of legendary Manchester indie club 42s rings out, then all five band members abandon their stations, slinging keytars and marching drums around their necks so that they can dance together in front of neon signs.
Blossoms have just done their second of five shows in Manchester, this time at the O2 Ritz. Credit: The Manc GroupBlossoms on stage at the O2 Ritz in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
Blossoms promised more disco with this album and they bloody meant it. It’s not just the flares and the blow-dries and the moustaches (though those do help) – it’s in the funk and groove that’s gradually crept into their music exponentially with each album release.
This is still indie rock but it’s the most danceable of its genre. Good luck keeping your shoulders from wiggling and jiggling in here. Good luck keeping that grin off your face.
And Gary is one of the most unexpectedly fun albums to be released in the last year – the fact they called it Gary, named after a giant fibreglass garden centre Gorilla, should’ve been our clue. It could border on silly were it not such a masterpiece.
It seems like the only thing Blossoms are trying to prove is that you can be wildly successful without taking yourself too seriously. They just seem like a group who want to have a good time and it’s totally infectious.
Case in point – when each band member is introduced, keyboardist Myles Kellock plays the riff of Satisfaction by Benny Benassi and The Biz. Unexpected.
Blossoms also clearly give a sh*t about their live shows and graft at it – I’ve seen these guys an awful lot and it’s because their tour dates are plentiful and consistently worth the ticket price.
This is definitely the biggest era of their career so far, but have they peaked? Not even close.
The Warehouse Project reveals return to Rotterdam for second-ever overseas event
Danny Jones
The Warehouse Project has confirmed it will be returning to Rotterdam in 2025 for just its second-ever overseas event.
After debuting abroad in 2023 with an action-packed few days in the city of Rotterdam – whose art scene, music culture and even canal network bears lots of similarities to Manchester – Warehouse Project is coming back for more.
There’s just over a month left of the 2024 WHP calendar; you’d think they’d be getting ready to wind down and enjoy the Christmas breather, but not so: the organisers are already planning what is set to be one of their biggest and best long weekends to date.
Set to take place over the early May bank holiday, the Dutch port city will once again play host to one of Manchester’s legendary club nights.
The second biggest city in the Netherlands behind Amsterdam, the next edition of Warehouse’s international series is set to return to Rotterdam RDM – a warehouse space very reminiscent of both Depot Mayfield and their original home at Victoria Warehouse.
WHP x RDM II is already being billed as an “unforgettable weekend” and if any of this year’s mainline events here in Manchester are anything to go by, they’re bound to live up to that promise.
There’s also a full FAQ page for anyone looking to find out more information regarding Rotterdam, the venue itself, travel and more.
As well as revealing the dates (2-4 May 2025), the organisers have already teased a good chunk of the lineup, with the likes of Chris Stussy, Peach, Four Tet b2b with Sammy Virji, salute and many more already confirmed.
With a slew of incredible acts, multiple afterparties on boats and other local venues, as well as plenty of opportunity to see the rest of Holland’s ‘Manhattan on the Maas’, this is going to be SO good.
We were lucky enough to have been sent to sample their inaugural Rotterdam date back in April of 2023 and, we have to say, it was an absolute blast.
Take it from us, if you’re considering being a part of this next event you won’t regret and we’ll be putting together an extensive guide to help you feel prepared for raving overseas. Registration for early access is already live, so sign up fast if you want to give yourself the best chance of being there.
Limited presale and accommodation packages will be available to those who have applied at 9am on Monday, 2 December (UK customers only). General admission tickets will go live from 9am n Tuesday, 3 December sale for UK and Dutch customers starts Tuesday 3rd December at 9am GMT/10am CET.
Rotterdam 2025 will be here before you know it, so take a boots-on-the-ground at what an international Warehouse Project date looks like down below:
Dean Hadcock -
24th July 2023 
