Christine & The Queens has shared the first names booked for Meltdown Festival 2023, with Sigur Rós and Django Django confirmed to headline.
The singer-songwriter and producer is the curator and headliner of this year’s event at London’s Southbank Centre, which runs from Friday, June 9 until Sunday, June 18.
Warpaint, Let’s Eat Grandma, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Bat For Lashes, Serpentwithfeet, KOKOROKO, Yemi Alade, Oxlade, Moonchild Sanelly, Sqürl, Lynks, Johnny Jewel (of Chromatics fame), and Soap&Skin have also been announced in the first wave.
Christine & The Queens (real name Héloïse Letissier) will close out the event with a second headline performance on June 18, following the previous night (June 17).
Commenting on the first acts announced, he said: “Art to save the city! Ten nights that are ours. Southbank Centre filled with beloved artists, some I discovered recently, some I know are amazing performers and poets. Dance. Theatre. Words and music. Friends and future friends. Raving, hopefully. Art to save the city! To free its contours and enliven the soul – it’s the why we do what we do. I can’t effing wait.”
Tickets for Christine & The Queens’ Meltdown shows go on general sale this Friday (March 17) at 10am GMT here. Individual ticket links for the sets will go live at that time – see links below.
Meltdown Festival 2023 schedule:
JUNE
Friday 09 – Django Django, Royal Festival Hall @ 7.30pm (tickets)
Friday 09 – Serpentwithfeet, Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer @ 7.30pm (tickets)
Saturday 10 – Yemi Alade and Moonchild Sanelly, Royal Festival Hall @ 7.30pm (tickets)
Saturday 10 – Let’s Eat Grandma, Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer @ 7.30pm (tickets)
Sunday 11 – Sqürl, Queen Elizabeth Hall @ 7.30pm (tickets)
Monday 12 – Warpaint, Royal Festival Hall @ 7.30pm (tickets)
Tuesday 13 – KOKOROKO, Royal Festival Hall @ 7.30pm (tickets)
Wednesday 14 – Johnny Jewel, Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer @ 7.30pm (tickets)
Thursday 15 – Oxlade, Royal Festival Hall @ 7.30pm (tickets)
Thursday 15 – Bat For Lashes, Queen Elizabeth Hall, @ 7.30pm (tickets)
Friday 16 – Sigur Rós and the London Contemporary Orchestra, Royal Festival Hall @ 7.30pm (tickets)
Friday 16 – Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer @ 7.30pm (tickets)
Saturday 17 – Christine & The Queens, Royal Festival Hall @ 7:30pm (tickets)
Sunday 18 – Christine & The Queens, Royal Festival Hall @ 7:30pm (tickets)
Sunday 18 – Lynks, Queen Elizabeth Hall @ 7:30pm ()
Adem Holness, Head of Contemporary Music at the Southbank Centre, added: “Meltdown is all about inviting audiences and artists into the imagination of the curator, and the music they love.
“If you’ve ever had a chance to experience the creativity of Christine & The Queens, you’ll know it’s full of fun and joy, but also somewhere to help us make sense of the world around us, especially as queer people. Meltdown 2023 is shaping up to be like no other festival we’ve seen. With hugely infectious energy and bold ambitions, Meltdown will encompass creativity across Christine and the Queen’s creative spectrum.”
Mark Ball, Artistic Director at the Southbank Centre, said: “Christine & The Queens’ boundary breaking work has made him one of the most compelling artists of our age. It’s thrilling to see the breadth of his extraordinary imagination come to life across Meltdown, one of the true highlights of the summer at the Southbank Centre. I can’t wait for us all to experience his curation and celebration of selfhood, identity and creativity.”
Last year’s Meltdown Festival was curated by Grace Jones, and saw performances from Peaches, Skunk Anansie, Dry Cleaning, Greentea Peng, John Grant, Sky Ferreira, Hot Chip and Honey Dijon.
The album, which is the follow up to last year’s LP ‘Redcar Les Adorables Étoiles’, is released on on 9 June via Because Music in 3xLP, CD and digital formats. You can pre-order/pre-save the album here.