Southbank Centre will be in touch with all ticket holders in early May with information on how tickets can be transferred to the new dates. All ticket holders for other planned events this Spring will receive information of rescheduled dates, credit vouchers, donations and refunds.
Grace Jones said:
“Regretfully my Meltdown festival this year must be rescheduled to June 2021 due to the coronavirus. I am gravely disappointed, but also delighted to be working with the amazing Southbank Centre team who have been able to successfully move the festival dates, along with all of our incredible line-up. Stay safe, stay home and see you next year!”
Bengi Unsal, Head of Contemporary Music, the Southbank Centre, said:
“We are pleased to announce that Grace Jones’ vision for Meltdown will still be realised, albeit in June 2021. We’d like to give the biggest thanks to Grace Jones, all the artists on the line-up and their hard working teams, without whom this would not have been possible. The safety of our staff, artists and visitors is our top priority at this time and although we are disappointed Meltdown won’t go ahead this year, we feel this is the best course of action for such a big festival. We look forward to Grace Jones’ Meltdown in 2021 which we are sure will be one to remember!”
Gillian Moore CBE, Director of Music, the Southbank Centre, comments:
“This is a challenging time for the artists we work with, for our staff and for the millions of audience members who enjoy what we do. It’s for this reason that we are excited to announce that this special event, a highlight of the Southbank Centre’s Contemporary Music programme, can still go ahead in 2021. In these uncertain times, one thing we can be sure of is that we are going to need music and the arts more than ever.”
Meltdown has an unparalleled reputation among artists and is famed for providing a stage for exclusive collaborations and intimate, once-in-a-lifetime musical experiences. It is the crown in the Southbank Centre’s year-round programme of gigs and contemporary music which emcompasses world-class venues including the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, and opportunities to showcase boundary-pushing, underground artists through its celebrated futuretense and Concrete Lates series.
Grace Jones joins a roll-call of world-changing artists to head up the festival, including David Bowie, Yoko Ono, Patti Smith, Nick Cave, Lee Scratch Perry, M.I.A., and Robert Smith, and takes the baton from her former collaborator Nile Rodgers, who delivered the most critically acclaimed Meltdown to date in 2019.
Many more contemporary music concerts in the Southbank Centre programme have also been rescheduled including Warm Digits (17 Sep 2020), Concrete Lates: Weval (2 Oct 2020), Mew (2 Oct 2020), Daedelus (17 Oct 2020), Belle Chen (19 Oct 2020), Purcell Sessions: Keaton Henson (5-6 Nov 2020), Gigi Masin (28 Nov 2020), Ben Watt (28 Nov 2020), Ulrich Schnauss (29 Nov 2020), Collocutor (8 Dec 2020), David Rodigan & The Outlook Orchestra (9 Dec 2020), Tindersticks (19 Feb 2021), Goldfrapp (2 and 3 Apr 2021) and Ravi Shankar Centenary (8 Apr 2021).
The Southbank Centre also announces a range of digital events, including a celebration of sitar maestro Ravi Shankar on Tuesday 7 April - the centenary of his birth, Beyond Beethoven Nine on Saturday 18 April a one-day digital event to mark Beethoven 250 celebrations, fronted by conductor Marin Alsop and the continuing roll out of hidden gems and classic moments from it’s archives in the weekly Culture Fix email. Further information about the Southbank Centre’s digital offer and the rescheduling and cancellations of other events can be found on its website.
