Harry Styles is set to curate the 2026 Meltdown festival at London’s Southbank Centre, organisers have announced.
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Organisers said this year’s event will form part of a “landmark” celebration presented as part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th-anniversary year.
Speaking about the festival in a new press release, the ‘Aperture‘ singer 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.”
The festival will run from Thursday June 11 until Sunday June 21, with a line-up set to be revealed in spring – and you can sign up for an email newsletter for updates here.
“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,” Styles added.
“I’m incredibly grateful to Southbank for having me, it’s really exciting for me to have this opportunity in such an iconic venue.”
The centre’s artistic director, Mark Ball, said Styles was an “iconic British artist”, and said the centre was “thrilled and excited that Harry Styles’ Meltdown sits at the heart of a 75th anniversary year that champions young people, their curiosity and creative freedom”.
“His openness, warmth and instinct for collaboration feel perfectly aligned with the spirit at the heart of the festival,” added Jane Beese, Head of Contemporary Music at Southbank. “We’re excited to see his vision play out across the whole site, creating space for connection, discovery and joy, and inviting audiences into a Meltdown that reflects the breadth, playfulness and generosity of his artistic world.”
With the announcement, Styles joins the huge list of legendary names that have curated Meltdown at Southbank Centre in the past, including David Bowie, Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Grace Jones, Christine and the Queens, Nile Rodgers, Robert Smith, David Byrne, Yoko Ono, Anohni, Massive Attack, Little Simz and Jarvis Cocker.
News of his curator role comes ahead Styles sharing his fourth solo effort in ‘Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally’. Set to arrive on March 6, the singer recently revealed that some fans will have a chance to hear it ahead of its release with a series of listening parties.
Fans across 40 cities will be given the chance to listen to new material, including his latest single ‘Aperture’, which features Wolf Alice’s Ellie Rowsell and was inspired by LCD Soundsystem. In a review of the new track, NME said it was “Styles as we’d not heard him before”.
Last month, Styles also confirmed a huge, seven-city ‘Together, Together’ tour, which includes a 12-night residency at London’s Wembley Stadium and an impressive 30 dates at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
When tickets went live for UK dates, there were queues of up to 250,000 people for each of the shows. It has also been revealed that Styles has broken several records at both Wembley and Madison Square Garden thanks to huge demand.
The Wembley gigs will see the ‘As It Was’ singer donate £1 from every ticket sold to LIVE’s levy, helping to protect UK grassroots music venues and support emerging talent. You can visit here for any remaining UK tickets, and here to get international tickets.
After tickets went live, former bandmate Zayn Malik seemingly took a swipe at Styles by making a comment about ticket prices at a recent live show. “Hopefully the ticket prices weren’t too high – just saying!” he grinned at his recent Vegas gig, before shrugging. “Anyway!…”
Many fans have interpreted the comment as a nod to the conversations around the ticket prices for Styles’ upcoming shows at Wembley Stadium.
He’s also announced a “one night only” performance of the album at Manchester Co-op Live Arena, with tickets costing £20.
In other news, Styles also recently shared that he needed to “fall in love with music all over again” after taking three years off after releasing ‘Harry’s House’ in 2022, and further shed light on feeling “alone” after One Direction disbanded.
