Ragnar Kjartansson, Jeremy Deller, LCD Soundsystem, and More Slated for Arkansas’s FORMAT Festival

Bentonville, Arkansas, is the home of the Walton empire. The Walmart campus is ever expanding, and the town and its cultural offerings along with it.

Last year, the new music, art and technology festival FORMAT made its debut. Now, it’s announced that it will return for a second edition running this year from September 22–24.

The line-up for the 2023 edition includes musicians like LCD Soundsystem, Alanis Morissette, Leon Bridges, Modest Mouse, and others.

A line up of participating artists has also been announced. Guerrilla Girls, JR’s Inside Out Project, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Ragnar Kjartansson, Jeremy Deller, and Serpentwithfeet & Wu Tsang will present works at the festival for the first time. Meanwhile, the artist duo Justin Lowe & Jonah Freeman and assume vivid astro focus will be returning to the festival. Maurizio Cattalan’s Toiletpaper Magazine will once again host a barn-turned-disco club.

Mafalda Millies and Roya Sachs will be returning as artistic directors and co-curators. Both belong to the creative house TRIADIC and have partnerships with the major concert producer C3 as well as the local museum Crystal Bridges, which was founded by the Walton family. The FORMAT festival was acquired by the Walton family ahead of its debut.

Last year, musicians and artists expressed surprise at being toured in a region that doesn’t usually see much major festival activity. But many reported that they were pleased with the opportunity to take work beyond culture hubs on the coasts.

“If you go to East Coast, West Coast, you see art everywhere,” artist Lucas Van Oostrum said in a prior interview with ARTnews. “The beauty about the work that we make is that it transmits freedom to its visitors, it’s not confined by the white space of the gallery or the museum, so it’s important for us to show the work off the beaten path.”