The Cure’s Robert Smith is turning his hand to curating.
The singer, 58, will oversee the Southbank Centre’s 25th Meltdown festival in the summer.
Previous curators of the music festival have included composer Sir George Benjamin in 1993, David Bowie, Yoko Ono and, last year, rapper MIA.
Love Cats singer Smith said: “I am honoured and excited to be curating the 25th Meltdown festival.
We are absolutely delighted to announce that the curator of the 25th #MeltdownFest will be Robert Smith! https://t.co/ZTUq0XlFlV pic.twitter.com/oVY01n2ca3
— Meltdown 2018 (@meltdownfest) February 6, 2018
“More than 30 of my all-time favourite artists – some of the most exciting, inspirational, intense and influential performers of the last 40 years – will make sure this 10-night extravaganza at London’s Southbank Centre is the must-see event of the summer.”
Bengi Unsal, the Southbank Centre’s senior contemporary music programmer, said Smith had “paved the way for the alternative and the uncategorisable”, adding: “This year’s festival will be a celebration of that influence and that legacy.”
The 2018 event will be the first major festival to take place across the whole Southbank Centre site in London, including the newly reopened Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room after two years of redesign and refurbishment.
The event runs from June 15 to 24.