Meltdown

The festival

Since 1993, the Southbank Centre has entrusted Meltdown to an artist who has been drawing the program: David Bowie, Patti Smith, Grace Jones, Yoko Ono, Nile Rodgers, Little Simz and Harry Styles have succeeded each other. For the 32nd edition, from June 10 to 20, 2027, the curator is FKA twigs — a singer, dancer and visual artist — who will also sign an event concert leading the poster. Her complete programming will be announced in spring 2027.

The place — Southbank Centre

Meltdown has not moved: since 1993, the festival has been living in the walls of the Southbank Centre, on the south bank of the Thames, in London. The largest arts centre in the UK, the complex is spreading its rooms, fireplaces and terraces between the Waterloo Bridge and the London Eye, a few minutes walk from Waterloo Station. Music, dance, literature, visual arts, debates: programming runs all year round, and for about ten days in June, Meltdown takes the orders.

The history of the site begins with the 1951 Festival of Britain, the great event that was to restore colours in London after the war: the Royal Festival Hall, inaugurated on May 3, 1951, is the living heritage of the country — the first post-war building in the country to be ranked Grade I, since 1981. The complex then grew on the shore: the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room opened in 1967, the Hayward Gallery in 1968. Their concrete architecture, long discussed, became one of the emblems of the British capital.

• Royal Festival Hall — 2,700 seats. The large historic hall of the complex, opened in 1951: concerts, dance and great encounters. Six orchestras are in residence there — London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, London Sinfonietta, Chinese! and Aurora. This is where Meltdown's headlines play.
• Queen Elizabeth Hall — 916 seats. The 1967 room, in the heart of the crude building of the complex, reopened in 2018 after a complete renovation: concerts, shows and great evenings of the festival find their setting.
• Purcell Room — 295 seats. The most intimate of the three rooms, all in wood panelling, within the same building as Queen Elizabeth Hall (its gauge can climb to 365 places with a reduced scene).Opened in 1967, it hosts readings, recitals and close formats — David Bowie and Radiohead played there.
• Hayward Gallery. The art gallery of the complex, opened in 1968: large exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, recognizable by its concrete volumes and glass pyramids.
• National Poetry Library. Founded in 1953 by the Arts Council and inaugurated by poets T. S. Eliot and Herbert Read, the National Poetry Library has been installed at the fifth level of the Royal Festival Hall since 1988. The largest public collection of modern poetry in the world — more than 200,000 documents — it is free and open to all.

During the festival, the whole complex is living at the pace of the curator's programming: the Royal Festival Hall, concerts and meetings at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room, open houses during the day, terraces facing the Thames in the evening. The neighbourhood continues in the "To see" section at the bottom of this sheet: the banks of Thames and the Southbank district are among the places to discover around the festival.

The place in images

The Royal Festival Hall, seen from the river, day and night, its terraces facing the Thames, and the rooms: the auditorium of Queen Elizabeth Hall and the warm wood of the Purcell Room.

Other festivals of the house

Meltdown is just one of the great rendezvous of the Southbank Centre. All year round, the house makes its own festivals live in all disciplines:

• WOW — Women of the World. The Women and Equality Festival, born here in 2010 at the initiative of Jude Kelly, then artistic director of the Southbank Centre, around International Women's Day. As a world movement led by The WOW Foundation, he keeps his home port in London.
• London Literature Festival. The great meeting of the books and ideas of the house: writers, poets and thinkers from all over the world, every fall.
• Imagine Children's Festival. The Children and Families Festival: shows, stories, books and workshops for the youngest festivalgoers.
• Africa Utopia. The festival of contemporary African cultures and their diasporas: music, debates, fashion, gastronomy and visual arts.
• Unlimited. The international festival that showcases artists with disabilities in all disciplines.

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