Bluedot is renowned for its family friendly approach and offers much more than your standard summertime 4 day event. The setting is iconic with bands playing under the eye of the mighty Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank.
The site itself is jam-packed with beautiful eye-catching art installations bathed in light, and plenty of educational talks and exhibitions which makes the whole experience so much more than a musicfestival.
This year the festival kicked of on the Thursday evening with a rather special event, German Composer Max Richter, accompanied by the full BBC Concert Orchestra with readings by no other than academy award winning actress Tilda Swinton who stunned the venue into a respectable silence with her reading of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Her performance was poised, and perfect amongst the talented musicians that accompanied Richter’s outstanding performance of voices and recomposed.
The weather this weekend has made headlines and despite a fairly sunny start on Thursday evening, by Saturday when we returned it had turned biblical!
Saturday had a fabulous lineup, which was impacted somewhat by the weather. Despite the best efforts of the Bluedot staff who were outstanding, many decided to avoid the main stage area. Despite this, there was still a hefty crowd for the eight members of desert blues eight piece Tinariwen. Hailing from the Sahara region of Northern Mali, the band have been making waves with their beautiful blend of African and Western Rock.
The bands fusion of traditional Tuareg music combined with blues and rock has captivated audiences and they continue to mesmerise fans worldwide.
Following the strong start on this evenings main stage was post-punk rockers Dry Cleaning. More subdued than their contemporaries who have broken through the scene at a similar time (Fontaines, Yard Act et al). Lead singer Florence Shaw makes all the right faces and notes with a dramatic performance that is much more subtle than her fellow bandmates, who are ferocious in their onstage antics making this band quite a unique experience.
Unfortunately due to the horrendous conditions we were not able to go back for the final day. I am assured by friends and fellow media bods that Sunday’s headliner Grace Jones was exceptional. Lets hope that next year this magnificent festival isn’t plagued by bad weather.
Bluedot returns next year and more information can be found HERE.
More live music news from RGM can be found HERE
