Kraftwerk are a German electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the genre. The group began as part of West Germany's experimental krautrock scene in the early 1970s before fully embracing electronic instrumentation, including synthesizers, drum machines, and vocoders. Wolfgang Flür joined the band in 1973 and Karl Bartos in 1975, expanding the band to a quartet.
Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England hosts a number of radio telescopes as part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. The observatory was established in 1945 by Bernard Lovell, a radio astronomer at the university, to investigate cosmic rays after his work on radar in the Second World War. It has since played an important role in the research of meteoroids, quasars, pulsars, masers, and gravitational lenses, and was heavily involved with the tracking of space probes at the start of the Space Age.
Orbital are an English electronic music duo from Dunton Green, Kent, England, consisting of brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll. The band's name is taken from Greater London's orbital motorway, the M25, which was central to the early rave scene during the early days of acid house. Additionally, the cover art on three of their albums showcase stylised atomic orbitals. Orbital have been critically and commercially successful, known particularly for their live improvisation during shows.
Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe from an unprecedented distance of approximately 6 billion kilometers, as part of that day's Family Portrait series of images of the Solar System.
Fuji Rock Festival is an annual rock festival held in Naeba Ski Resort, in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. The three-day event, organized by Smash Japan, features more than 200 Japanese and international musicians, making it the largest outdoor music event in Japan. In 2005, more than 100,000 people attended the festival.
Philip Cunningham is an English guitarist who is a member of the bands Marion, New Order, Bad Lieutenant, ShadowParty and, more recently in 2020, Sea Fever.
The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester is one of the largest and most active physics departments in the UK, taking around 330 new undergraduates and 50 postgraduates each year, and employing more than 80 members of academic staff and over 100 research fellows and associates. The department is based on two sites: the Schuster Laboratory on Brunswick Street and the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics in Cheshire, international headquarters of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
The Tramlines Festival is an annual music festival held in Sheffield, UK. The festival was originally free to attend, but now requires tickets. The line-up consists of national and local artists. The festival was curated and organised by a panel comprising local venue owners, promoters and volunteers. The name of the festival is inspired by the city's tram network. Tramlines held its first festival in 2009, which attracted 35,000 fans and was seen as a huge success, and 2010's event doubled that figure. The success of Tramlines Festival 2011 led to the event winning 'Best Metropolitan Festival' at the UK Festival Awards. Superstruct Entertainment, the live entertainment platform backed by Providence Equity Partners, owns the festival after it entered definitive agreement for the acquisition of several live music and entertainment festivals from Global Media & Entertainment and Broadwick Live.
Kendal Calling is a music and arts festival, held annually at Lowther Deer Park in the Lake District, Cumbria in the North West of England. It has grown from a two-day, 900 capacity event in 2006 to a 40,000 capacity 4-day music festival. Kendal Calling has 9 stages and has featured live performances from notable artists such as Blondie, Pendulum, Doves, Dizzee Rascal, James, Mumford & Sons, Calvin Harris and British Sea Power. In 2010 Kendal Calling was awarded the Best Small UK Festival Award at the UK Festival Awards, as voted by the public. Kendal Calling also won the industry award 'Best Small Festival' at the LIVE UK awards 2011. Superstruct Entertainment, the live entertainment platform backed by Providence Equity Partners, owns the festival after it entered definitive agreement for the acquisition of several live music and entertainment festivals from Global Media & Entertainment and Broadwick Live.
Thomas Louis Chapman is a French-British musician, producer and songwriter, best known as being the bass guitarist of English rock band New Order. He is also one of the founding members of Anglo-American group ShadowParty and more recently in 2020, Sea Fever.
Parklife is an annual two-day music festival in Manchester, England and takes place in June each year. The festival predominantly features dance and electronic music, as well as pop and hip-hop artists.
Flow Festival is an urban music and arts festival in Helsinki, Finland. The music presented at Flow Festival is a varied selection of artists from indie rock to soul and jazz and from folk to contemporary club sounds – from both the Finnish and the international scene. In addition to music, Flow Festival is about urban spaces, visual arts, film screenings, talks, design as well as food and drinks. The event takes place at a defunct Suvilahti power plant and its industrial surroundings in downtown Helsinki's immediate vicinity.
Victorious Festival is a three-day music festival held in Portsmouth, United Kingdom. It was founded in 2011. In its first year, the festival was named the Victorious Vintage Festival. The first official Victorious Festival was 2013. The festival was held in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, before moving to Southsea Seafront in 2014.
The Castlefield Bowl is an outdoor events pavilion in the inner city conservation area of Castlefield in Manchester, England. Reinvigorated in 1993, the lead architect was DEGW Architects. The tensile roof structure was designed by Rudi Enos, and is a semi-cantilever framework incorporating lighting and sound. The arena is often used for food festivals and music events.
Teresa Mary Anderson is a British physicist and the director of the University of Manchester's Discovery Centre at Jodrell Bank Observatory. She is a professor at the University of Manchester and the curator of science at the Bluedot Festival.
Tamsin Edwards is a British climate scientist and Professor at King's College London. She is a popular science communicator and writes for the Public Library of Science (PLOS).
All Points East is an annual music festival held over two weekends in London's Victoria Park, run by AEG Presents. The 10-day event comprises one festival weekend, four days of free entry and community activities known as "In the Neighbourhood" and finally three standalone headline shows in their APE Presents series. The first year of All Points East was held in 2018 with LCD Soundsystem, The xx and Björk headlining the festival weekend and Catfish and the Bottlemen, The National and Nick Cave headlining the three standalone shows the following weekend.
Philippa K. Browning is a Professor of Astrophysics in the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. She specialises in the mathematical modelling of fusion and solar plasmas.
Anna Margaret Mahala Scaife is a Professor of Radio Astronomy at the University of Manchester and Head of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics Interferometry Centre of Excellence. She is the co-director of Policy@Manchester. She was awarded the 2019 Royal Astronomical Society Jackson-Gwilt Medal in recognition of her contributions to astrophysical instrumentation.
Björk Orkestral was an "unplugged" concert series by Icelandic musician Björk. Originally announced for the summer of 2020, all concert dates were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A four-part concert series was later announced for August 2020 at the Harpa concert hall in Reykjavík, then rescheduled to October and November 2021 due to new restrictions against the pandemic by the Icelandic government. Each date featured different musicians, instrumentation and set lists and all four concerts were live streamed to raise money for Kvennaathvarfið, a women's shelter in Reykjavík. Over 100 Icelandic musicians joined Björk on stage across the four matinee performances, which were some of the first live performances with an audience by a major international singer since COVID-19 crippled the live music industry.
