Meltdown Festival 2015: Tickets, line-up and essential info

All you need to know about David Byrne's festival at the Southbank Centre
Hand-picked: David Byrne curates this year's Meltdown
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Jochan Embley11 August 2015

The ever-eclectic Meltdown Festival returns to the Southbank Centre for its 22nd year. Here's what you need to know.

The essentials

Meltdown Festival takes place across two weeks, from Monday August 17 – Sunday August 30 at the Southbank Centre. It’s easily accessible from a number of tube stations, with Waterloo, Embankment, Westminster and Charing Cross being the nearest.

Need a ticket?

Each event is separately ticketed, so just because one show is sold out, doesn’t mean they all are. In fact, although some of the most popular events have very few or no tickets at all remaining, there are still a good number with plenty still to be sold. Click here for more information.

The music

Curated by David Byrne of Talking Heads (and of numerous other artistic ventures), there is a hugely diverse array of musical talent on offer – flamenco, drone metal, electronic, indie pop, soul and toytronica are just a few of the genres represented. Click here for our artist-by-artist rundown of all the gigs scheduled for the festival.

Things to do in London this summer

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And the rest

The music is of course the main attraction, but Meltdown doesn’t stop there.

An avid reader, Byrne has amassed an impressive collection of literature. His library, which comprises around 250 books, is transported across to Meltdown and will be available for you to peruse over the entire festival period.

Two films will be screened alongside live orchestral accompaniment. Firstly, there is the score by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood for There Will Be Blood (August 19), and later on the seminal 1968 film Planet of Apes gets a similar treatment (August 28).

For those who are inspired by the musicians they see at Meltdown, there are a few related workshops. Learn the basics of flamenco (August 17), a cappella (August 22) and Sacred Harp singing (August 28), or take part in a choir singalong (August 22) and a brass instrument busk (August 21).

Arts and crafts are covered by a workshop that helps you to creatively spruce up your bike, scooter or skateboard (August 23), while in another session, youngsters will go on a scavenger hunt and later contribute what they find to a communal art project (August 24).

Elsewhere, there’s a live cinema performance of Sam Green’s The Measure of All Things (August 26), the boundary-straddling Gob Squad put on a show (August 27-August 30), while Young Jean Lee’s We’re Gonna Die mixes comedy and music (August 27-30).

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