Bluedot Festival 2018

Published by Jonny on July 20, 2018

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Bluedot Festival is an award-winning weekend of discovery at the grounds of the Jodrell Bank deep space observatory. Set against a backdrop of the iconic Lovell Telescope, bluedot combines a music with a ground-breaking programme of live science experiments, expert talks and immersive artworks. Following winning our Award for Outstanding Contribution to Social Innovation at the University of Manchester Social Responsibility Awards, the organisers of Bluedot festival invited us to come along to do some mapping!

bluedot official

We couldn’t resist such a great opportunity, and so we assembled a team of fantastic volunteers (only some of which are in the picture below!):

volunteers

We couldn’t beleve how great the response from the public was, and we had a full tent for most of the weekend, during which over 500 people mapped more than 200km2! We had so many mappers that it started to take a toll on our laptops - we broke 9 through the course of the weekend!! (I am pleased to report that they are all now fixed!)

busy tent

One of the most striking things was the variety of people that came to map with us, in particular the number of children that came to help - some of whom were as young as six did a fantastic job. The young man in the middle image below was definitely our champion mapper - he ended up spending most of the weekend with us and we even awarded him one of our official #Huckathon t-shirts for doing such a great job!

participant 1   participant 1    participant 2

We had a great time mapping at Bluedot, and also exploring the fantastic festival, which was packed with fascinating science and outstanding music. We very much hope that we will be back next year for an even bigger #Huckathon!

I would like to thank our army of volunteers who helped prepare and deliver the 2018 Bluedot #Huckathon:

  • Sarah Brown
  • Kate Booth
  • Siobhan Corbett
  • Dellen Drake
  • Rory Flynn
  • Timna Freeman
  • Claire Goulsbra
  • Madeliene Hann
  • Jonny Huck
  • Rebecca Huck
  • Jonathan Lillie
  • Tim Meadows
  • Chris Perkins
  • Patrick Reynolds
  • Cait Robinson
  • Kirsty Watkinson
  • Joe Williams
  • Clancy Wilmott
  • Garrett Wolf

And of course, we would like to thank the >750 people who volunteered their time to help map Uganda!