Joe GallopMusic, science and culture festival bluedot (cap. 21,000), will take a fallow year in 2024 due to the impact of weather at this year’s event, promoter From the Fields has announced.
This summer’s edition of bluedot, which took place from 20-23 July, saw record-breaking amounts of rainfall before and during the festival have a severe impact on the site at Cheshire’s Jodrell Bank Observatory.
Sunday tickets were cancelled but the event remained open for people already on site, after production company Engine No. 4 laid over 1.5km of additional track mat and trackway, 130 tonnes of sustainably sourced wood chip and brought multiple trucks on site to pump out standing water.
The event featured headline performances from Grace Jones, Pavement and Roisin Murphy, with keynote speakers including science broadcasters Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Chris Lintott and environmentalist Mike Berners-Lee.
It was announced last year that Los Angeles-based Superstruct Entertainment had acquired a controlling stake in bluedot.
Bluedot organisers said in a statement, “Underpinning bluedot’s mission is a sincere love and respect for the earth and environment we are lucky to be part of. However, the earth beneath bluedot 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 conclusion 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.”