Bluedot is a festival I hadn't heard of, until by chance I was flicking through a music magazine while waiting for a chinese takeaway and there it was, the poster. A poster with the words music festival, and space on, with Pixies headlining and Jodrell bank telescope looking amazing, I had to go.




I was a little bit worried that I'd over hype it, the idea of a space theme'd music festival was almost too much for my little nerd heart to handle and I was worried that it wouldn't live up to expectation, but oh boy did it!
The first thing that caught my eye was the Lovell telescope, she's beautiful, and also freaking massive. Luckily my friends were equally as excited and we were in for a weekend of sun, music, and astrophysics!
The highlight of the weekend wasn't the amazing music (though there was a lot of that), it wasn't the physics (also a lot), but the art! There was so much audiovisual and interactive art and it was all the coolest thing I'd ever seen. From a giant inflatable set of chambers that glowed luminous inside from sunlight and we spent almost two hours lying in, to giant blue glowing balls which played music that were only inflated at night, to a fiery display which was more than welcome on a cold evening.
Then of course there was the music, Pixies were incredible, Alt-J were a lot better than I'd excpected and I got to see the amazing Dream Wife Live. I also saw Plastic Mermaids, who I only went to based on their amazing band name, they had the cutest singer on at the end who left everyone in awe as this amazing opera voice came out of her. I had shivers down me and at one point thought I might cry because it was the best thing I'd ever heard live, a beautiful voice mixed with some amazing techno. Plus let's not forget jumping around to Nirvana being played from a wine bar, and the awesome gaming set by DJ Yoda, it was a piece of heaven.
But heaven isn't complete without astrophysics, and though sadly the talk on science and the Patriarchy was full, and we missed the chance to sign up for the Jedi training camp, I did get to look at sunspots on the moon, hear a mass spectroscopy machine play music, make an electronic light up bag, watch live pulsar data projected onto the Lovell, and discover a whole bunch of new female scientists. I honestly could not have asked for much more other than more time so I could also go to all of the talks.

And though all that sounds crazy we did spend a large part of out time eating, and lying around in the sun, I really don't know what could've been more perfect a weekend.
This is only the second year that Bluedot has been running and I can see it getting bigger and bigger, it was an amazing festival. It wasn't just one that they went "this is space theme'd" and put some stuff up here and there, it had science integrated all over and that, as a massive nerd and science student, made me incredibly happy.

Bring on Bluedot 2018! I'm ready for more space festival adventures!