Harry Styles to curate 31st edition of Meltdown Festival
By Olivia Carolan
The iconic cultural programme Meltdown festival returns on June 11 this year, ending on 21 June. Supporting the arts with Southbank Centre, Harry Styles has announced his chosen acts, including an intimate gig with his very own performance at the Royal Festival Hall London.
Music News Blitz’s Olivia Carolan writes about what to expect from the upcoming festival.
Southbank Centre has been an iconic venue for the past 75 years, sharing the importance of the arts and increasing accessibility for younger people and the everyday person to experience.
Each year the annual festival chooses a culturally significant artist who serves as the curator, where they shape the line up based on their own inspiration and influences.
From David Bowie and now to Harry Styles, mainstream artists take charge of the festival, bringing light to niche artists.
Styles has chosen a range of music reflecting his own personal love for art and his own influences.
A variety of genres will be showcased during the festival including jazz, indie and electronic music.
Musical icon as curator
Harry Styles over the past decade has been an inspiration to his audience, exploring his own identity and attempting to form a society full of self expression and a lack of judgement.
He marked the first male to be on the cover of Vogue in 2020, and was seen wearing a billowing dress, challenging gender norms.
Styles' creative curiosity is a defining part of his identity, making him the perfect curator for the festival and its ethos.
This year’s Meltdown festival will feature artists such as the LCD soundsystem legend, James Murphy, a significant inspiration to Harry Styles’ most recent album and latest single ‘Aperture’ as he experiments with electronic music.
Styles has chosen more underground artists too, aligning with the legacy of the festival.
Warpaint, a more atmospheric indie band, will be appearing at the festival as their only live performance of the year.
“Music is my life, every artist involved in this year’s Meltdown festival means so much to me, both as a fan, and a musician,” said Styles.
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The Meltdown Festival
Southbank Centre has been a legendary location to share artistic vision and a place for rising artists. It is the largest arts centre in the UK.
Since 1993 the Meltdown festival – the longest running artist curated festival – has brought cultural significance to the community of music, film, poetry and art.
It was established for people to experience the arts as much as possible, with 40 percent of what they do offered for free.
The Southbank Centre is essentially a way of creating easy access to the arts. Their evolution of the Meltdown festival is distinct to any other mainstream festival.
They have several intimate indoor venues where gigs are performed, rather than the typical outdoor mainstream festivals such as Glastonbury.
It is nothing like anything that has been done before, reflecting the curators personal taste rather than the most trending artist of the time and chart success.
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