The award-winning festival that fuses music, science and culture at Cheshire’s iconic Jodrell Bank Observatory – has today announced its family programme to an already jam-packed line-up.
Celebrating 30 years since the release of ‘A Grand Day Out’ and the iconic quest to find cheese, Wallace & Gromit creatorsAardman join the line-up. Led by one of the expert model makers, children will have the chance to create their own charactersat the clay modelling workshops on site. There will also be a chance to delve further into the industry during Q&As with the experts.
Jim Parkyn, Senior Model Maker at Aardman said: “We are delighted to bring our clay modelling workshops to bluedot festival this year.
“Wallace & Gromit: ‘A Grand Day Out’ is based around a holiday on the moon, and given bluedot’s theme celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landings, we couldn’t think of a better place to celebrate the 30th anniversary of ‘A Grand Day Out’. We can’t wait!”
Also announced today is award-winning author and screen writer, Frank Cottrell-Boyce who will host a talk on his latest book release, Runaway Robot. Writer of the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, Frank is a leader in the children’s book sector. Expect a funny and heartwarming adventurous story between a boy and a one-legged robot.
Big Fish Little Fish will be returning to bluedot with its energetic family raves and discos including a special Clangers rave. Billed as ‘London’s latest clubbing craze and Reliably Excellent’ by the Guardian, Big Fish Little Fish will offer an authentic clubbing experience, plus kid’s crafting, bubbles, giant balloons and confetti cannons. Rave paint at the ready!
Also on the bill are a host of hands-on science shows to excite any budding scientist. Badminton School Science Outreach Team will bring their Physics in the Freezer show to Jodrell Bank. Expect to see amazing demonstrations including what happens to nitrogen when it’s cooled to -196 degrees.
Billed as ‘jaw-dropping, informative and fun’, StrongWomen Science will bring their new show to this year’s festival. Starring two female scientists turned circus performers, the performance will be a fun, lively and very fast-paced show. The perfoamnce will also reveal the scientific secrets behind the duo’s astounding tricks.
Elsewhere on the line-up is Read Your DNA Live!, an interactive show where audiences will have the chance to learn more about their own DNA using ultra-modern DNA sequencing technology that can be found on the International Space Station.
Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics will bring the interactive installation Pulsar Hunters to the festival. Learn all about pulsar signals from Jodrell Bank researchers and contribute to classifying real data taken with the LOFAR Telescope!
The University of Manchester will be bringing three science shows to the festival including Space Rocks! which will see the team from the School of Earth and Environmental Science bring pieces of the moon collected by Apollo astronauts to bluedot. Other shows include Physics Outreach, a demonstration involving breathtaking experiments and Take a Bite out of Climate Change, which will explore the impact food choices can have on climate change.
Liverpool John Moors University will showcase the Liverpool Telescope - Liverpool’s biggest robot, whilst The University of Liverpool will simulate a bluedot disease outbreak as part of their Mission: Infection Control. See how far an infection can spread and what an epidemiologist has to do in the race to halt the disease.
Celebrating the year of the periodic table, the Royal Society of Chemistry will deliver interesting and fun facts on the different elements in an interactive workshop. Also featured is Incredible Oceans who will bring the OceanDome to the festival, a pop-up space and installation which will educate visitors on the ocean and the threats it faces. The National Space Centre team will also be on site with an exciting and explosive show: It IS Rocket Science which will explore the history of rockets.
Other welcome additions to the family offering include: Mousetrap Balloon Show, Earth and Water: The Magic of Binders, Fossil Frontiers, Science Girl: Women of Science, Cheshire Beekeepers, Chester Zoo Conservationists, Macclesfield RSPB Wildlife Explorers, Manchester Girl Geeks: Stomp Rockets, MDA UK, UKESM: A Model Earth and The Bogtastic Van!
This year, National Childbirth Trust will be on site to offer a dedicated Parent and Baby Space at the festival to allow parents to feed, change and play.
As well as its live and electronic programme, bluedot will explore the latest scientific discoveries from outer space and our planet. There will be talks from world-class scientists and thinkers, combined with an opportunity to ask the Big Questions of leading researchers.
Published on 01 May 2019 by Ben Robinson
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