The annual festival takes place at London’s Southbank Centre between June 9 and 18
Last November, it was announced that Christine and the Queens would be curating Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre in June 2023. Chris’ Meltdown is set to be a vibrant celebration of trailblazing artists, with a varied range of activities on offer over the course of the festival, from live cabaret performances to DJ sets to multi-sensory events. Now, an exciting new roster of acts has been revealed.
Dub collective Faggamuffin Bloc Party will be kicking off the first weekend of the festival at the open-air Riverside Terrace on June 9, with a performance designed to celebrate African and Caribbean LGBTQ+ visibility.
On June 10, Rain Crew will offer an innovative programme ranging from live performances and movement workshops to experimental music and hip-hop dance battles. Rain Crew’s mission is to spotlight marginalised voices and provide opportunities for dancers who use hip-hop as a force for enacting social change.
On June 11 and June 18, Meltdown will play host to ‘Reign Down’, a party led by world-renowned DJ The She Jay. The We Are Dopamine collective will play an eclectic mix of grime, techno, disco and soul sets on June 11, while female and non-binary collective Loud LDN will take over on June 18 for an afternoon of drum and bass and synth-pop.
Christine and the Kings with Pecs and Sisu take the helm for the final weekend of Meltdown. On June 16, Sisu will host an event spotlighting electronic music from DJs blazing the trail in the underground music scene, alongside Pecs Drag Kings, a female and non-binary theatre company that specialises in staging raucous cabaret shows.
The Bitten Peach, the first queer Pan-Asian Cabaret production company in the UK, will showcase an exciting mix of drag, burlesque, spoken word and circus on the Riverside Terrace on June 17. Founded in 2019 by ShayShay, Lilly Snatchdragon and Evelyn Carnate, The Bitten Peach’s goal has always been to uplight voices from the queer Asian community through disruptive art and storytelling. You might recognise them from their 2022 Netflix documentary Peach Paradise or from their stellar performance at Glastonbury last summer.
Other new additions to the line-up include leading queer performance company Milk Presents in association with Trans Creative Collective, who will support Christine and the Queens with their cabaret show, ‘Trans Filth and Joy’, in the Royal Festival Hall. On June 9, indie pop band Girl Ray will support Django Django in the Royal Festival Hall, while Nigerian singer Shaé Universe will support serpentwithfeet in the Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer. On June 11, Norwegian pop star Metteson will open for Let’s Eat Grandma, and on June 12 R&B artist Amie Blue will support Warpaint in the Royal Festival Hall. Zola Jesus will support Johnny Jewel in the Queen Elizabeth Hall on June 14, while internationally renowned DJ Avalon Emerson & The Charm will support Bat for Lashes on June 15.
Head of public programming at the Southbank Centre, Ruth Hardie, said: “We are hugely excited to be working with Christine and the Queens as this year’s Meltdown Curator. Together, we’re presenting an expansive programme of free events, with exceptional artists who can in the words of our curator ‘rejuvenate and enliven our souls!’ From DJ sets in summer sun, late night cabaret, dance battles and immersive multi-sensory experiences, there’s something for everyone.”
The first acts at the festival were revealed back in March: Chris is set to perform two headline shows on both days of the finale weekend, while the line-up also includes serpentwithfeet, Yemi Alade, Bat For Lashes, Django Django and Let’s Eat Grandma. Then in April, the festival’s exciting late-night programme was unveiled. Though it closed in 2020, iconic south-east London queer club The Chateau will return for one night only to present ‘SE_XCELLENCE’ at the Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer on June 9. They’ll be joined by collectives WET, the Spice Boys, UOKHUN? and Let’s Have A Kiki, and there will be DJ sets from the likes of Lagoon Femshayma, Tom Rasmussen, Jay Jay Revlon, Victoria Peckham, Amor Ante, Rabz, Rita Lin and Mo Probs.
Elsewhere, there will be an immersive sensory experience presented by BitterSuite at the Royal Festival Hall Clore Ballroom, an after-party hosted by Pxssy Palace, and a Q&A led by Drag Race legend Katya Zamolodchikova.
Tickets for Christine and the Queens’ Meltdown Festival, which runs between June 9 to June 18 at the Southbank Centre, are available here.
Join Dazed Club and be part of our world! You get exclusive access to events, parties, festivals and our editors, as well as a free subscription to Dazed for a year. Join for £5/month today.