[Blue Dot Festival]

A few minor teething problems aside, it was a great festival for me, most folk were extremely well-behaved - least police I've ever seen at a festival. I personally thought the food was outstanding, just the right amount of stalls, very varied and not too much price-gouging.

The sound quality was excellent overall, a little too much bass-bleed from the Nebula tent on occasion (DJ Shadow) but given the size of the site that's unavoidable. Some of the set times were brought forward on the Sunday which was a bit annoying, Dutch Uncles seemed to start half an hour early.

The strawberry cider was lovely but sadly it was the only real cider available and they ran out after two days. Agree the Brian Eno installation was a double edged sword though, great to look at during the night but I would have preferred the dish pointing toward the stage for projections during the headliners. 

Some great lectures and science talks, including the excellent Prof David Nutt and his Psychedelic drug therapy study, no wonder the government fired that guy, far too much truth for them to handle.

Musical highlights for me were Underworld, PSB, Floating Points, Beth Orton, 65 Days of Static, also Phoria were an unexpected pleasure. Hilarious amount of middle-aged snooker fans visiting the DJ Thundermuscle set last off, only to come back out 30 seconds later looking bemused by the left-field techno and still not sure if they'd actually seen Steve Davis!

Will be back next year with friends in tow.

[Blue Dot Festival]

Stellar line-up, I absolutely had to buy a ticket at the last minute, all my mates are either skint or going to Tramlines in Sheffield so I'm braving it on my own... anyone else daft enough?