The Bluedot music and science festival offers a winning formula for family fun
We head to Jodrell Bank for a fun weekend of live music, experimental play and close encounters with alien friends
TO this young reveller, seeing a dad push two sleeping infants in a wheelbarrow through the mud at Glastonbury Festival looked like hell on earth.
Now, two decades on, I’m pulling along two of my own boys in a garden trolley cart after a bombastic closing set from the Chemical Brothers. It’s hard work, but totally worth it.
Somehow I've persuaded my wife that three days here at the Bluedot festival in Cheshire would be a great mini-break for the entire family.
I'll be honest - she wasn't totally convinced.
She loves live music, but the one and only time I coerced her into going to Glastonbury it barely stopped raining.
And, such was her fear of festival toilets, she survived the weekend by merely sipping water and nibbling biscuits.
Our three young boys needed little persuasion, of course. This family adventure sounded terribly exciting, but also a bit confusing.
“Is this it?,” asks 4-year-old Alex, as we stop-off at Cherwell Valley Services on the M40.
While music festivals traditionally offer an opportunity to lose your mind, Bluedot might just expand it.
Set in beautiful grounds under the gigantic Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory, it mixes live music with a ton of science-related talks, workshops and kids’ activities.
The likes of The Flaming Lips, Gary Numan and Roni Size sit on the bill alongside boffs such as professional atheist Dr Richard Dawkins and red-haired TV presenter Alice Roberts.
Our kids aren’t old enough for the hardcore space and science stuff, but they get to build paper stomp rockets, try VR for the first time, construct a solar-powered model raft, program a robot and join a Star Wars-inspired lightsaber training session.
We all have great fun getting lost in the crazy, colourful tunnels and rooms of a huge, inflatable construction called Luminarium.
It’s great to catch up with some old mates but, in true holiday style, the boys make several new friends too – and not all are human.
In one of the science fields, they fall for a robotic pup named Kate who loves to be tickled under her chin. Sorry kids, you can’t take her home.
Later, a pair of festival-goers in silver morphsuits catch the name of our middle child as they pass our campervan.
"We have come to meet Dylan!," shouts one of the ‘aliens’, through a toy loudhailer.
We bump into them several times more, and each time they’d bow to their 'new leader', much to his amusement.
Close encounters with these and other ‘extra-terrestrials’ capture the randomness of Bluedot and the friendliness of the crowd – but 9-year-old Oscar isn’t having it.
"If they’re really aliens how come they’ve got festival wristbands on?," he asks.
Borrowing a Tardis-like VW California campervan significantly enhances our camping experience.
There's no tent to erect or gear to lug on arrival, it's relatively comfortable sleeping, plus there's a kettle on the hob and a fridge for cold drinks.
Mercifully, the festival toilets are kept clean and replenished with toilet roll and hand sanitizer. My wife approves.
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Of course, the weekend at Jodrell Bank has not exactly been relaxing.
As the fitness tracker on my watch beeps yet again, I ponder whether we should have had a 'normal' chilled-out break in Cornwall, Wales or somewhere.
But, no, all of our family have had an absolute blast here. It’s truly been out of this world.
GO: BLUEDOT FESTIVAL
STAYING THERE: Bluedot festival returns to Jodrell Bank in Cheshire on July 18-21.
This year's headliners include Kraftwerk, New Order and Hot Chip.
Adult weekend camping tickets from £169; children (6+) from £27.50; campervan plot £88.50 extra.
For full details see .