M3F festival 2024 brings Dominic Fike, Dayglow and more to its new location in Phoenix
M3F Fest will bring Dominic Fike, Dayglow, Arlo Parks and and more to Phoenix as the festival moves into its new home, Steele Indian School Park, in 2024.
The nonprofit M3F festival, formerly known as McDowell Mountain Music Festival, will take place Friday and Saturday, March 1-2.
Conceived as a team-building exercise for its producers, Wespac Construction, M3F donates 100% of its proceeds to charity with $2 million donated since 2022 and $5.2 million raised since its inception in 2004.
The charity focus of M3F expanded last year with the launch of the M3F Fund, which opened funding to the public by offering an open application to nonprofit and 501(c)(3) organizations. The fund is supported by festival ticket sales.
Who the 2023 M3F Fund donations helped
The first round of M3F Fund donations in 2023 included Phoenix Children’s Hospital, which received $100,000 toward its Music Therapy Program, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which received $75,000 as part of its Light the Night fundraising efforts.
This year's Light the Night walk will take place on Nov. 12 in Mesa. Proceeds benefit the organization's research into blood cancer and the support of patients.
Other recent M3F Fund initiatives include a $5,000 donation to St. Vincent de Paul for their September Bike Drive, along with two families being moved into houses through the Saving Amy project.
How M3F helps kids in need: This children's hospital's music therapy program is funded by M3F
Other beneficiaries since the festival's inception include Habitat for Humanity, Backline, Phoenix Rescue Mission, Boys Hope Girls Hope, United Way, Arizona Helping Hands, Desert Foothills Land Trust, Rosie’s House and many more.
M3F Fund applications for 2024 are now open. Organizations are required to present a clear and measurable plan for how the funds would be allocated and fall within the four pillars of the M3F ethos, which are community, education, the arts and the environment.
M3F festival moves to new Phoenix location for 2024
Fans can expect the same M3F experience as past years in a larger location with more art activations when the festival moves to Steele Indian School Park. It will still have three music stages.
This is the third time M3F has moved since its first year at WestWorld of Scottsdale. It's been at Margaret T. Hance Park in downtown Phoenix since 2013 after three years at the Compound Grill, a short-lived music venue Wespac's John Largay opened in 2009.
"We're super excited about it," says M3F Talent & Marketing Manager RJ Largay, whose father co-founded the festival.
"Over the years, we've been feeling and hearing things from our fans that we kind of identified as a lack of capacity. So rather than trying to pack more people in, we wanted to create something that had a little bit more space and allow us to grow for years down the line."
The new location has a capacity of 20,000. In prior years, the capacity has been 15,000-18,000.
"In addition to that, there's less red tape, to be honest, by just not being in a park that's on top of a bridge," Largay says.
"We really want to cultivate an experience that's very memorable. And a big part of that is taking some of the production and activations off the stage and making it feel completely immersive. So when you go to M3F, we you to feel like you're in that world."
M3F festival 2024 lineup in Phoenix
As usual, the festival has assembled a diverse array of talent, from EDM to indie, pop and R&B, with Fike and Lane 8 headlining.
Arlo Parks, Bakar, Barrett, Bennett Coast, BUNT., Coco & Breezy, Dayglow, Drama, Duke Dumont, Edapollo, Elderbrook, Fiji Blue, Gordo, Gorgon City, Hippo Campus, it's murph, Jules Duke, KOL, Poolside, Roosevelt, Shifty, SG Lewis, Tim Atlas, Tommy Newport, Valley, Vandelux, WhoMadeWho and Young Franco will also perform.
Beyond McDowell Mountain: How the M3F founder built a downtown Phoenix music festival
How to get tickets to M3F festival 2024
Tickets for the 2024 M3F music festival in Phoenix go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 20, at m3ffest.com.
Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: M3F festival's 2024 lineup to bring Dominic Fike, Arlo Parks, Dayglow
