M3F Music Festival (Phoenix, AZ, United States) 2027

M3F returns to Phoenix on 5 and 6 March 2027, and the festival’s defining feature is where the money goes: M3F is a non profit that donates its net proceeds to local charities, and has given millions of dollars to Phoenix causes since it started.

That structure shapes everything else. The organisers describe the festival as music, family and a mission, and the programming spreads across electronic music, indie and hip hop rather than specialising, which widens the audience and therefore the donation. The festival publishes recap films, with the 2016 and 2019 editions online.

Tickets are sold through Tixr. Phoenix in early March is close to perfect, around 26 degrees in the day and mild at night, which is why the Arizona festival calendar concentrates on the spring. Sky Harbor is 15 minutes from the centre and the city’s light rail serves the downtown area. For an American music festival run as a charity, M3F is the one that has made it work at scale.