Tim Peake steals the show at Bluedot Festival

Tim Peake's tales of space travel, Top Gun inspiration and extreme training provided the star turn as Bluedot returned after two years away. The festival, which takes place under Jodrell Bank's iconic Lovell Telescope, had to be cancelled in both 2020 and 2021 due to Covid restrictions.

Bluedot had many impressive headliners such as Björk and Groove Armada on its musical stages, but was as much about the science as it was the songs. 'Above it all, in so many ways, was Major Peake' said the BBC. 'Bounding on stage to one of the weekend's biggest cheers from a crowd that was at least as large outside the huge tent as it was in it, he grinned from ear to ear... An enthralling hour went from him being inspired to become a pilot by the original Top Gun film through to gazing back down on Earth from the International Space Station's Cupola observatory, from weightlessness leading to him losing his sense of smell to his days of doing loops in helicopters, and from looking back at his time off the planet to the possibilities of the future missions to the Moon and Mars.'

What a fantastic way to mark the festival's return!