MATI, the festival and conference formerly known as Music at the Intersection, is coming back for its seventh year and rolling out new approaches to make the festival more accessible to the community than ever.
Today, MATI announced that it will be returning in 2027 to take over the Grand Center Arts District from July 15-18, with a shift in the festival’s approach that moves it from an all-inclusive pass model to individually ticketed performances and showcases at indoor venues around Grand Center. These ticketed venues include past festival favorites such as The Fox Theatre, The Sovereign, and Jazz St. Louis, alongside new additions Powell Hall and The Sheldon Concert Hall. Even with this new ticketed approach to indoor venues, MATI’s free neighborhood block party experience will be back in full swing as well.
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“You buy the ticket that you want to see in the room you want to see it,” says Chris Hansen, Executive Director of the Kranzberg Arts Foundation. “The backdrop of those shows, though, will be a fully activated connected district, with all of the bars, restaurants, and museums.”
On July 16 and 17, the festival’s outdoor venues—The Big Top, a mobile Wash Ave Stage, and the Counterpublic Performance Green Stage—will have free performances alongside other block party festivities in conjunction with the festival, including events and activations at MATI Places around the area and the concurrent MATI thought leadership conference. In particular, eight yet-to-be-announced national acts and local St. Louis artists will perform at The Big Top and Wash Ave Stage, while the Counterpublic Green Stage will feature non-musical performances.
As MATI continues to grow and evolve, Hansen sees these moves to offer more free performances, events, and activations alongside ticketed indoor shows as a way to keep the festival’s strong community roots intact while elevating the Grand Center Arts District and showcasing the high levels of talent the festival brings.
“Affordability and accessibility are really important to people right now, and being able to give the community a free activation allowed us to really think about our indoor shows differently,” Hansen says. “Doing more outside for free allows us to put tens of thousands of people in the streets of the Grand Center Arts District and expose them to this amazing district, and all the businesses, arts organizations, and activations.”
In terms of this year’s lineup and tickets, Hansen confirms that those announcements will be coming in late winter/early spring. In the meantime, Hansen is excited to see the ways MATI can continue to bring St. Louis together in 2027.
“What excites me most is to continue to be around and have something that St. Louis can really celebrate,” Hansen says. “It’s exciting to see St. Louis come together to hold this, and every year more people hold onto it, and more people and organizations are involved. I really think that this is a city-wide and community-wide effort. This is something we’re all holding in concert because we believe in it, we know it’s powerful, and we love it. I’m excited about the future and excited to see St. Louis have something that is so uniquely its own.”
