Harry Styles has accepted all the main quests for this year. New album? March 6. A record-breaking 12 nights at Wembley Stadium? Easy. Curate the legendary Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre in the summer? Yep – that’s just been announced.
Mr Styles is the latest artist at the helm of Meltdown Festival, who appoints a musician each year to design their perfect lineup for the summer event at the riverside event. By curating the festival lineup this year, Harry Styles joins an esteemed list which includes the likes of Little Simz, Robert Smith, David Bowie, Chaka Khan, Grace Jones, Patti Smith, Yoko Ono, Nile Rodgers, David Byrne, and more.
His lineup will be revealed soon, but we do know that the festival takes place across 11 days this summer (June 11 to June 21), and comes in the 75th birthday year of the Southbank Centre, so there’s even more cause for celebration.
As with every Meltdown Festival programme, there will be acts across all days, each picked out by Harry Styles, with a headline set from the man himself coming at the end of proceedings.
Speaking on the news, Harry Styles said: “I’m deeply honoured to curate the Meltdown festival, especially for the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary year. My goal as the curator is to share the music and art that I love, and to celebrate the rich history of the venue. We both share a passionate belief that music is a vital part of life. It brings us together and the Southbank Centre has been at the heart of it, providing easy access to great music for the past 75 years. I’m incredibly grateful to Southbank for having me, it’s really exciting for me to have this opportunity in such an iconic venue.”
Meltdown Festival 2026 takes place between June 11 and June 21. More information can be found at the Southbank Centre’s website, with the lineup due to follow soon.