Is Bluedot Festival 2025 at Jodrell Bank going to happen? With no further details being confirmed by the organisers, fans are starting to worry.
The last update we received from the festival organisers confirmed the sad news that Bluedot was taking a year off. The decision had apparently been made to help the Jodrell Bank site recover after 2023’s festival turned into a mud bath.
As of January 2025, we have not received any updates from Superstruct Entertainment who own the festival or former Bluedot management. Considering competition from other festivals, we would expect the next few weeks to be paramount timing to make some sort of announcement. Given there is still no reference to Bluedot on the Superstruct Entertainment website, we speculate a pending change in ownerships of the rights to the festival or a closing chapter to the festival.
While the future of the Bluedot remains uncertain, we hope all involved understand its more than a commercial venture. Like the Transmission events which came before, it’s the cosmic connection of music, science and the unique venue of the World Heritage site of Jodrell Bank which captures the imagination of visitors.
Search engines have seen a spike in traffic over the last few months from festival goers searching for more information. Fans are starting to worry and asking the big question, is Bluedot Festival 2025 going to happen?
There have been big challenges for the festival since 2019, post pandemic. After pausing for two years, Superstruct purchased a 60% controlling stake in the Bluedot Festival in 2022, helped secure its future after production costs increased by more than 25%. In 2023 the start of the cost of living crisis hit middle class families hard, impacting advance ticket sales. Bad weather impacted last minute ticket sales and Sunday daytime tickets had to be refunded to protect the safety of the site as it turned into a mud bath on the Saturday. Veteran festival goers also noticed changes to the usual site plan in 2023, which made it feel smaller.
Whilst most big festivals have had to weather similar challenges over the last few years, recent observations have started to worry Bluedot fans. Superstruct own a 60% controlling stake in Bluedot and also Kendal Calling. Dates for Kendal Calling 2025 have been confirmed and tickets are already on sale and offer a convenient installment plan. Considering the competition between UK festivals is at an all time high, we would have expected to see a confirmation of dates and release of early bird tickets for Bluedot Festival 2025 as well. If you visit the Superstruct website, it features a promo video which quickly scrolls through a list of festivals they own including Kendal Calling but no Bluedot Festival!
As speculation grows, we ‘re keeping our fingers crossed for positive news over the coming weeks. Bluedot Festival won ‘UK Festival Award For Best Medium-Sized Festival’ in 2019 and ‘Line-Up Of The Year’ in 2022. It’s not just an award winning festival, when you mix Science, Space and Music together, you get something very unique and out of this world!
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Bluedot has been established since 2016 and has become one of the most unique festivals in the UK. While the news is disappointing, it was an ethical decision taken to protect the site’s environment to recover and regenerate.
The press release from the Bluedot team is below. We wish the team well and look forward to their return to Jodrell Bank in 2025!x
BLUEDOT TO TAKE A FALLOW YEAR IN 2024
When we set out on the journey that is bluedot we set out with a mission to create a unique experience – a combination of discovery, exploration and grand cosmic ideas that hadn’t previously existed, soundtracked by some of the finest musicians from across the planet and beyond. An opportunity once a year to explore new and unique collaborations between science, music and the arts, to be amongst like-minded adventurers, and to rediscover and celebrate our shared humanity.
Since launching in 2016, there have been six incredible bluedots filled with out-of-this-world highlights… Actual astronauts (!) in Helen Sharman and Tim Peake, the planet’s most beloved science broadcasters in Brian Cox, Jim Al-Khalili, Alice Roberts, Maggie Aderin-Pocock and James Burke, globally-adored music headliners in Jean-Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk, Björk, Underworld, The Chemical Brothers, Grace Jones, Orbital and New Order, and early performances from Wet Leg, Self Esteem, Squid, Dream Wife and The Comet Is Coming long before they would become household names. Hannah Peel joined us in the afternoon at bluedot 2018 as Mary Casio, and come 2022 we were honoured to welcome her and Paraorchestra to headline the festival.
Truly a festival at the centre of the universe, we stayed up late to beam the sounds of bluedot off the moon in celebration of Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary, and brought the RRS David Attenbrough team to Mission Control via satellite. And when the sun had gone down, we partied with Andrew Weatherall, 2manydjs, Erol Alkan, Roni Size and Annie Mac, and turned the Lovell Telescope into a 76-metre spectacular, with special visual performances created in collaboration with Max Cooper, Roisin Murphy, Groove Armada, Mogwai, Grace Jones, Pavement, Illuminos, Daito Manebe, Jodrell Bank’s own Tim O’Brien and Brian Eno, whose 2016 collaboration won ‘Best Mind Blowing Spectacle’ at the Association of Independent Festivals Awards.
Underpinning bluedot’s mission is a sincere love and respect for the earth and environment we are lucky to be part of. However, at bluedot this July, that earth itself took a lot of strain. Experiencing the highest level of rainfall on the festival weekend since records began (records courtesy of Jodrell Bank’s own weather station!) we have patiently waited to see what the effects of this have been on the land itself. We have now sadly reached the judgement that the ground on which the bluedot universe is built desperately needs some time to recover; a period of rest during which the soil will recover and regenerate. We are, as Carl Sagan put it, in very bad trouble if we don’t understand the planet we’re trying to save.
We have therefore taken the decision for bluedot to have a fallow year in 2024.
We had grand ambitions for our 2024 edition, but are nonetheless excited for the future, buoyed by the Artemis mission to take humanity back to the moon for the first time in 56 years. We cannot wait to join in the excitement with you.
We would like to share a heartfelt thank you to our home of Jodrell Bank, the local community and Cheshire East Council, the artists, speakers and all festival staff for their support since day one, and especially in the most challenging moments of bluedot 2023.
“Let the past hold on to itself and let the present journey into the future”. – Douglas Adams
Our journey is not yet complete – we look forward to moving into the future with you.
From all at bluedot,
Thank you.