Phoenix's M3F Fest is heading into 2027 with Joji, Fisher and Sammy Virji topping the bill, as the nonprofit festival leans further into house and electronic dance music for its two-day run at Steele Indian School Park. The 2027 edition runs March 5 and 6, and organizers have released a roster of more than 50 acts across indie, pop and EDM genres.
More than 50 additional acts round out the bill, according to Phoenix New Times, including Thundercat, Between Friends, Lola Young, Jane Remover, Ninajirachi, Ben Böhmer, Neil Frances, Manila Killa, Kasbo, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Disco Lines, Surf Gang, Chet Porter, Mindchatter, DJ Heartstring and Villager. The rest of the roster spans Temper City, Ian Asher, Roi Turbo, Brunello, Balu Brigada, Oxis, Stryv, Omlet, Jules Duke, Oscar Maydon, Smerz, Gelli Haha, LWVLEP, MU, Oppidan, Atrip, Shotwrist, Forester, Pluko, Jackie Hollander, OKGIORGIO, FORD., Angrybaby, Ollie Lishman, Le Youth, Shallou, Brainwreck, Malay, Antonio Bourachot, DeVault, LAVERN, SWIM and Mild Minds, per the same report.
The 2027 Lineup Marks a Deeper Shift Into EDM
The dance-heavy roster continues a shift already underway at M3F: last year's edition featured Peggy Gou, Mau P and Big Wild, while 2025 was co-headlined by LCD Soundsystem, Alvvays and Justice, the outlet reported. That's a notable turn from 2024, when the festival's top-line acts were the more indie- and pop-leaning Dominic Fike, Lane 8, Gorgon City and Arlo Parks, according to North Central News.
Tickets for the March weekend are on sale now at m3ffest.com. Two-day general admission starts at $227 per person with fees included, while two-day VIP tickets run $402 per person and add access to special viewing areas and other perks, per the same report. Club passes, the top tier, cost $1,002 per person and include a premium hospitality experience with private lounge access.
A Nonprofit Model With Deep Phoenix Roots
M3F's business model sets it apart from nearly every festival of its size: it donates 100 percent of its profits to local charities, making it one of North America's only fully nonprofit music festivals operating at a scale comparable to Maryland's All Things Go or Georgia's Shaky Knees, according to Mashable.
The festival's roots trace back to 2004, when Wespac Construction president John Largay launched it as an employee picnic and team-building event at WestWorld of Scottsdale, per PHOENIX magazine. It grew into a public, multi-stage event known as the McDowell Mountain Music Festival before organizers rebranded it M3F in 2018, once the festival had moved away from the McDowell Mountains and into downtown Phoenix, according to Copper Courier.
M3F spent a decade at Margaret T. Hance Park in downtown Phoenix, from 2014 through 2023, before relocating in 2024 to Steele Indian School Park, a 75-acre site that gave organizers more room for the festival's expanding footprint, per Fifty Grande. The park itself carries deeper history, sitting on the former grounds of the Phoenix Indian School, a federal Native American boarding school that operated from 1891 to 1990, the same outlet notes. Hoodline included the festival in our 2024 Valley festival roundup, published as that venue shift was taking shape.
Where the Festival's Money Goes
Since its 2004 launch, M3F has generated more than $6 million in proceeds for Arizona nonprofits supporting arts, education, community welfare and environmental causes, according to Relix. Organizers formalized that giving in 2023 by launching the M3F Fund, a year-round grant program that lets 501(c)(3) nonprofits apply directly for festival funding under four key pillars, per Broadway World.
That fund distributed $750,000 in 2024 alone, including $140,000 to Phoenix Children's Hospital for its Music Therapy Program and $100,000 to Habitat for Humanity of Northern Arizona, as reported by Copper Courier. The same round of funding also supported hunger relief through St. Mary's Food Bank and St. Vincent de Paul, according to the outlet.
Sustainability is one of the four pillars guiding that giving, and M3F diverts and recycles more than 80 percent of the waste generated during the multi-day festival, per Images Arizona.
