/THE BEST OF MANCHESTER

HEADLINERS at this year’s Bluedot Festival, which takes place at Jodrell Bank between July 19 and 22, include The Chemical Brothers, Future Islands, The Flaming Lips, and Little Dragon.

There will also be a worldexclusive first, when the Halle Orchestra perform Blue Planet Live against a backdrop of footage from the legendary David Attenboroughfronted documentary series.

But what about away from the music?

Jodrell Bank is, first and foremost, an observatory and a centre for scientific discovery and innovation - and you can bet that its festival reflects that.

There’ll be workshops, talks, walking tours and star gazing across the weekend and the festival site.

We’ve pulled together a few highlights to help you get the most from the festival. Learn how to leave planet Earth Had quite enough of your 9-to-5? We hear you.

Based on his witty debut book, titled Ad Astra: An Illustrated Guide to Leaving the Planet, presenter Dallas Campbell will tell you all you need to know to make the trip away from Earth - including rules on passports.

This sounds wacky and wonderful, and the humour will be backed up with plenty of actual science. Tim Peake said he could’ve done with this back in 2015.

It’s one of a series known as DotTalks, which sees leading experts from across the globe, and from many different scientific fields, take to the stage for presentations and talks.

You’ll find Dallas at Mission Control on Saturday July 21. Fire up your tastebuds Festival food always used to be a bit hit-and-miss (limp burrito or a basic jacket potato with beans), but things are finally being taken seriously.

Bluedot carefully select their food and drink vendors to make sure festival-goers are offered something a little out of the ordinary,

Although exact traders for this year’s festival haven’t been announced yet, the G’Astronomy Village usually includes plenty of options for vegans, vegetarians, meat-lovers, gluten-free eaters, coffee fans, and sweet tooths alike. Watch music and science collide The Flaming Lips are a rock band best known for their bonkers stage productions, which have in the past included giant dancing mushrooms, ride-on unicorns, and always an obscene amount of streamers and confetti.

So their lead singer might not seem like the obvious choice to host a conversation with a world-renowned astrophysicist. But it’s happening anyway.

Wayne Coyne will host a live discussion with Professor Tim O’Brien at the Mission Control stage on Friday July 20, covering topics such as alternative dimensions and the search for extra-terrestrial life. It’s the meeting of creativity and science, and we can’t wait. Get lost in the Pentalum Luminarium Wondering what a luminarium is? It’s been described on Architects of Air’s website as “somewhere between a womb and a cathedral”.

It is essentially an inflatable marquee, but one that has been carefully designed in complex colours and shapes and design to create a beautiful labyrinth.

The immersive installation has been deliberately designed by Alan Parkinson to be asymmetrical throughout, and will include huge domes, tunnels, and a ‘tree’ in the middle. The whole thing is also fully accessible. Master the science of mixology Yeah, this is basically a cocktail bar, but what’s not to like about that?

Bluedot’s Mixology venue will host hourly demonstrations to teach festival-goers how to make unusual and inventive cocktails.

You can, of course, also buy a drink in here, and they’ll be a darn sight more interesting than the usual flat, warm beer in a plastic glass you find at most festivals. Explore art after dark For the night owls who refuse to go back to their tents when the main music ends, there’s a whole universe to explore after hours.

Bluedot will fill The Outer Space area of the festival site with light installations and audio-visual artworks.

One of these will be a co-commission with the Natural Environment Research Council, a seven-metre wide replica of planet earth by artist Luke Jerram, featuring NASA imagery and a soundtrack of classical music. It’s hoped this will replicate what astronauts feel when they see Earth from outer space.

There will also be a fire laboratory, an interactive musical sculpture, and artwork made from scrap planes and helicopters. Change the world Once again, Bluedot have confirmed Practical Action as one of their official charity partners, and you’ll find them popping up with workshops and motivational ideas across the festival site.

They will have a team stationed in the Planet Field, where you can learn about the valuable work they do work that helps poor communities to utilise technology and their existing skills to improve quality of life - and how to get involved.

Practical Action will also host two workshops, one that teaches how to produce safe drinking water, and one that will teach children how to create a ‘floating’ garden.

The charity’s current project include helping the people of Bangladesh to control flooding, protecting Nepalese communities from landslides, and getting electricity to remote locations in Zimbabwe.