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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

Audio

Aitch is playing a huge hometown set at The Warehouse Project

Danny Jones Danny Jones

Aitch has booked another massive hometown slot as the Moston-born rapper will be playing none other than the home of clubbing here in Manchester: The Warehouse Project.

Joining the WHP25 programme, which is already stacked right up until New Year’s Eve, the 25-year-old is the latest rapper to take on the famous club venue, following the likes of Little Simz and Loyle Carner, who played the event series back in October.

Aitch‘s new album, 4 – which denotes the number of studio LPs he’s made to date and acts as a nod to the M4 postcode – was released on June 20 and has already proved popular with fans.

Having just played Parklife as well as a secret set at Glastonbury this year, he’s already performed most of his biggest slots for the year, but the ever-rising local rapper thought he’d given Manchester another big gig and one more chance to see him live in 2025.

Booking the main stage at Depot Mayfield this autumn, Aitch will be playing to hordes of die-hards inside the massive space.

It’s not his first time playing WHP, having previously joined fellow native and DJ Bou (the very same producer he joined in Glasto 2025) last year, but you can guarantee this one will be bigger.

As an increasingly popular main event act across the UK, a headline show at Warehouse Project is nothing short of a massive deal for any artist, let alone a Manc.

The date itself will see him see him performing songs from the new record, which is his second to hit the top 10, as well as a selection of multiple platinum-selling hits.

Sharing details of early access tickets on Instagram stories shortly after the announcement, the UK hip-hop and grime star reminded fans: “This is the only chance to see me shut this sh*t down this year!!!”

It’s actually his only major domestic show in full stop, so if you’re a die-hard fan of Harrison Armstrong and his music, you really don’t want to miss this one.

He’s not the only big name coming to Mayfield this season either.

The concert is coming to Manchester city centre on Wednesday, 29 October, and you can check Aitch’s social media for info on how to get pre-sale.

Meanwhile, in terms of general admission for Aitch at The Warehouse Project, tickets go live this Thursday, 3rd July at 10am.

Keep your eyes peeled for a link when tickets officially drop, and we’ll make sure to let you know when they do. See you there.

In the meantime, you can always watch us eat a burger with him…

Read more:

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

Featured Images — Jahnay Tennai (supplied)/Aitch (via TikTok)

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Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | June 2025

Danny Jones Danny Jones New Manchester music artists June 2025

Hello there. That greeting may be giving Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars vibes, and we can’t lie, we have listened to some cantina music while working this month… but not as much as we’ve been immersing ourselves in more new Manchester artists.

You should know the drill by now, and it is very much a what-it-says-on-the-tin scenario, but every few weeks, we round up some of the music – all crucially hailing from the Greater Manchester area – that we’ve been listening to of late.

We don’t discriminate when it comes to genre either. There’s only one simple rule: if it’s good, then we listen to it and then, hopefully, so do you.

Get your playlists at the ready.

Five Manc music artists we’ve been listening to recently

1. Arkayla

First up for June are relative newcomers Arkayla, whose name is inspired by “a terrible Oasis demo” from 1991 (their words, not ours – thought it is…) of the same name, a.k.a. ‘I Will Show You’, in which describe Liam Gallagher’s now legendary as once sounding “like a dodgy Ian Brown impressionist.”

However, there’s nothing dodgy about these lot and, thankfully, they’re in an era when you don’t have to hand out tapes recorded in the Boardwalk basement on the street to be heard. The Manchester band, which only formed in 2020, may be Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, but they’ve already got a sound.

There’s an unmistakable British indie element to them and hints at everything from The Kooks to The Lathums, but most notably, there are ’60s guitar notes and some real maturity already. Standouts include ‘Ella Malone’, the acoustic version of ‘Lost In a Valentine’, where the lead singer, Cal Blakebrough, really shines, and ‘Rita’ is such an addictive track.

2. iNNAFIELD

They don’t get more unknown, undiscovered, but sure to be up-and-coming than iNNAFIELD, who are a female-fronted psychedelia-forward five-piece with roots in Brighton but building a career in 0161. Having recently shone at The Deaf Institute playing a support slot at Academy 1, they have our interest.

If a glimpse of lead singer Jessie Amy Leask’s curly hair, 70s belts and long, flowing skirts plants Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac in your mind, you’d be right in thinking so; a listen to their other live tracks scattered across their socials confirms there’s plenty of other influences going on too, though.

Now, they’ve only got one proper recording out on Spotify called ‘Tell Me What’s On Your Mind’, but we’ve had it popping up on our algorithms everywhere, and we can see why: there’s soft, twinkly strumming, soft almost sleepy vocals before a nice big breakout at the end. Glorious stuff.

@innafield.band Tell Me What’s On Your Mind. On all streaming platforms now. #fyp #foryoupage #music #stevienicks #indie #band #wunderhorse #keo #pinkfloyd #fleetwoodmac ♬ original sound – innafield.band

3. Grace Kelly

No, not that one, the Princess of Monaco isn’t back from the dead, but ‘r Grace Kelly, who is based right here in Greater Manchester, is playing her part in the ongoing country revival taking place across the music world, offering her soulful voice and faux American-folk vibes to our ears.

She may not be a Mancunian by birth, having moved from New Zealand to our shores back in 2022, and although the weather change might have been a big sea change for her, there’s no culture shock to be found in her style; from the audio to the aesthetic, it still somehow feels pretty authentic.

Uplifting acoustic guitars, drum brush strokes, solos, Southern-twang harmonies – you name it, all the ingredients are there. The thing is, if you spend enough time immersing yourself in a genre, you can still pull off tracks like ‘Carry On’, ‘San Jose’ and the intimate ‘For Us To Change’.

We’d also give her Nashville twist on ‘Angels’ by Robbie Williams, too – trust us, it works.

4. Prido

We’re really lane switching when it comes to genre this month; maybe it’s because festival season is in full swing and we’re just being exposed to so much different stuff in a short space of time, all we know is we’re not complaining about it.

And neither should you, especially when you’ve got names like hip-hop, grime, soul and flag-flying Afrobeats rising star, Prido, being platformed. Blending all the above with R’n’B and a sprinkling of not just Northern but easily detectable Manc slant, it makes his music stand out in the ever-thriving space.

‘Free Ur Mind’ was the first track we ever heard, so we’ve struggled to shake that as our favourite, but ‘DND’ is a supremely dancey but chill example of laid-back of the genre that you need in your mixes this summer, and we also have a soft spot for his verse on the sensual ‘Lifeboat’ by Prima.

5. Josh Baker

Last but not least on our list of new Manchester artists for this June, we’ve got local DJ Josh Baker, whose name you might recognise from the headlines surrounding Parklife 2025, as his set was unfortunately cancelled due to problems out of his control.

Festival-goers flocked to The Matinee Stage for a highly anticipated back-to-back bill of Baker followed by Dutch counterpart Chris Stussy, both of whom have thrilled some of the biggest club crowds in the country – sadly, he didn’t get to do so this time. That being said, we thought we’d give him a shout-out.

We’ll confess to only having got around to his discography following this news, but ‘Back It Up’, ‘Something To Me’, and ‘You Don’t Own Me’ with Prospa and RAHH are all bangers. We’re looking forward to listening to more.

DJ at centre of Parklife cancellations speaks out over ‘unsafe’ crowds

Read more:

And that should just about do you; there are five artists and, at the very least, 15 new tracks for you to give a go – there should be at least of few of them you like.

But, let’s be honest: be it unheard, new, current, old or anything in between, Manchester music very rarely ends up being filed in the skippable category.

Then again, you can always check out last month’s list of Manc artists from last month and see if you get a better hit ratio.

See you next time.

Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | May 2025

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

Featured Images — Prido (via Facebook)/Arkayla (via X)/Grace Kelly (via Facebook)

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