Meltdown Festival is rushing back to the Southbank Centre this Summer for 10 days (June 9-18) of acts playing across multiple stages, and its grand curator this year is singer, songwriter and all-round superstar Christine And The Queens.
The announcement makes the French phenomenon the youngest person to take on this role at Meltdown Festival, and he will follow in the footsteps of artists including Robert Smith, Grace Jones, Patti Smith, David Bowie and more.
Over nine days, you can expect a divine roster of artists that have influenced and continue to inspire Christine And The Queens, who also goes by the name Redcar, and shaped his identity. Artists will appear at both ticketed and free performances across the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room to realise the unique vision of Christine And The Queens at Meltdown.
Last year, Christine And The Queens took to the stage at the Southbank Centre to perform his latest record, Redcar les adorables étoiles, and he will return this summer as part of the Meltdown lineup, which has just been announced…
Speaking on Meltdown Festival, Christine And The Queens said: “I will actually pick musicians that have some gut-wrenching quality, and I wish for all of us to stroll around in those ten days being rejuvenated by artistic gestures. Discoveries. The time Meltdown takes is quite exquisite, the abundance feels appropriately generous too“.
“We need this for ourselves, art in the city, art for the citizen, collective catharsis, a wonderful purge of the soul. I hope you’ll enjoy this glorious edition and again, long live poetry that burns and musicians crazy and brave enough to keep going – they are shaping the emotions of the future. Let’s thank them all!”
2023 marks the 28th edition of Meltdown Festival, which makes it the world’s longest running artist-curated festival. Last year, Grace Jones reunited the Meltdown crowds after a pandemic-induced hiatus for the festival in 2020 and 2021; with a linuep including Skunk Anansie, Greentea Peng, Sky Ferreira and many more.
Christine And The Queens’ lineup for Meltdown Festival 2023 is as follows:
Django Django, KOKOROKO, Oxlade, Sigur Rós and the London Contemporary Orchestra, Let’s Eat Grandma, Bat For Lashes, Warpaint, Moonchild Sanelly, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and experimental Austrian music act Soap&Skin.
More acts are expected to be announced later this Spring, and there’s even rumours of outdoor spaces, stages and immersive experiences this year. We’re counting down already…
Read more about this year’s Meltdown Festival here.