Blue­dot fes­ti­val has just released its line­up for July 2023 – and from the music to the sci­ence and space pro­gramme, it’s look­ing amazing. 

Top of the bill is the spec­tac­u­lar Grace Jones with her one and only north­ern fes­ti­val per­for­mance this year. Pave­ment and Roisin Mur­phy are also set to head­line. Addi­tion­al­ly, Left­field will be return­ing to Blue­dot: their last, mem­o­rable appear­ance (per­form­ing Left­ism) was in 2017 (read about one fan’s expe­ri­ence here) They have recent­ly returned with the crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed This Is What We Do, fea­tur­ing Lemn Sis­say and Fontaines DC’s Gri­an Chat­ten and will per­form at Bluedot’s Orbit arena.

Oth­er artists on Blue­dot 2023’s line­up are: Young Fathers, art rock­ers Djan­go Djan­go, fet­ed post-punk Dry Clean­ing, Mali­a’s Tinari­wen, Black Coun­try, New Road, TVAM, plus a Sun­day Clos­ing Par­ty head­lined by Annie Mac.

Plus… Nubya Gar­cia, Geor­gia, Max Coop­er (3D AV), David Holmes, Beak>, Gwen­no, Tele­man, CMAT, Lava La Rue, Big Joanie, Skin­ny Pelem­be, Scalp­ing, West­er­man, Belief, Pic­tish Trail, Divorce, Mad­mad­mad and Radio­phon­ic Work­shop also join the first wave of the festival’s music line-up. 

Blue­dot has revealed the first sci­ence names vis­it­ing the UNESCO World Her­itage Site of Jodrell Bank Obser­va­to­ry, includ­ing BBC Sky at Night’s Chris Lin­tott and Mag­gie Aderin-Pocock (who gave one of the most inspir­ing talks of the fes­ti­val last year), Braini­ac Live and renowned cli­mate change researcher and author Mike Bern­ers-Lee, whose How Bad Are Bananas? was named by The Inde­pen­dent as one of its ten rec­om­mend­ed “best books to help you live more sustainably”. 

UK Space Agency’s Lib­by Jack­son OBE and The Open University’s Pro­fes­sor of Plan­e­tary and Space Sci­ence Mon­i­ca Grady CBE will return to the fes­ti­val. The full sci­ence bill will be revealed in the com­ing weeks. 

There is a first taste of the cul­ture and com­e­dy line-up includ­ing a David Bowie spe­cial edi­tion of Adam Buxton’s Bug!, a screen­ing and in-con­ver­sa­tion with Moon­age Day­dream direc­tor, writer and pro­duc­er Brett Mor­gan and an after­noon with White Rab­bit Books fea­tur­ing talks with Mogwai’s Stu­art Braith­waite, Lias Saou­di of Fat White Fam­i­ly, and 90’s icon Miki Berenyi, whose book Fin­gers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Suc­cess was named Rough Trade’s book of the year for 2022.

Fam­i­lies are well catered for with a host of excit­ing and inter­ac­tive enter­tain­ment from Our Kids Social Silent Dis­co, Pop-Up Pup­pet Cin­e­ma and the ever pop­u­larJedi Lightsaber Train­ing. The sci­ence and space areas are a fan­tas­tic way to spend time, learn­ing from the experts and mak­ing dis­cov­er­ies about exper­i­ments and new ways to help pre­serve the planet.

There will also be the VIP Vil­lage, curat­ed by Man­ches­ter-based food char­i­ty Eatwell and fea­tur­ing food and drink brands includ­ing Dishoom, Car­o­line Mar­tins, Where the Light Gets In, Anoth­er Hand and more. 

Tick­ets for blue­dot 2023 go on sale 10am Fri­day 27th January.

Vis­it: discoverthebluedot.com