Combining astrophysics with math rock, a new festival hopes to provide a different sort of mind-bending experience for its attendees.
Taking place at the Jodrell Bank observatory in Cheshire on 22-24 July, the three-day Bluedot festival will feature artists, speakers, scientists and performers.
Set beneath the striking Lovell telescope, the third largest steerable radio telescope in the world, the festival site will be a fitting setting for headline act, the new age, ambient electronic composer Jean-Michel Jarre.
Astrophysics poster boy Professor Brian Cox will also be in attendance, to record an episode of his Radio 4 show The Infinite Monkey Cage with co-host Robin Ince as part of the festival’s science and culture programme. As well as lectures and debates, activities will include robot workshops, pulsar hunting and graphene making.
Headline music acts have an electronic and psychedelic edge, with Caribou, Underworld and 65daysofstatic on the bill.
The festival is supported by the UK Space Agency and the EuroScience Open Forum, Europe’s largest interdisciplinary science meeting, which will also be taking place for the first time in nearby Manchester during the same week.
• Full weekend camping and day tickets go on sale on Wednesday 16 March at 9am, weekend tickets from £119, day tickets from £35, discoverthebluedot.com
