Better curate than never: The rise of artist-led events
As artists lean into bespoke experiences, IQ talks to some of the teams helping talent facilitate the growing phenomenon of talent-curated festivals
Feature By Eamonn Forde | 26 March 2026
Capitalising on the bond of trust that artists have with their fans, more and more acts are launching their own curated events to deliver bespoke experiences to their followers.
The first real artist-curated festival was also the first real music festival – the three-day Monterey International Pop Festival in California in June 1967. The event and billing were put together in a large part by John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas, creating a template that carries through to today.
Fairport Convention set up the long-running Cropredy Festival in 1976, but by then things were moving into broader programming. Festivals were becoming more professionalised because of the huge sums of money involved. The artist-curated and artist-fronted festivals saw a significant revival in the 1990s with Lollapalooza…
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