Spotify Beach 2026: Fandom and Culture Collide at Cannes Lions

We’ve just marked a dozen years of Spotify hitting the Croisette for the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, and this year’s Spotify Beach might have been our most memorable yet—a can’t-miss destination for the creators, artists, brands, and fans descending on the South of France. Throughout the week, Spotify Beach celebrated the power of fans with a stacked lineup of sessions, interactive experiences, and nighttime performances. 

Here’s a look at some of the highlights.

On the Croisette

In addition to our compound on the beach, Spotify kept busy at the festival.

• Co-CEO Gustav Söderström joined a panel at Axios House, digging into the ways Spotify’s Large Taste Model helps users shape their own experiences on the platform.
• Co-CEO Alex Norströmgave a keynote interview to Financial Times Live, where he framed Spotify’s “time well spent” philosophy and the recent landmark licensing agreementswith Universal Music Group
• Chief Public Affairs officer Dustee Jenkinsspoke with Variety about the changing ways brands communicate with their fans.
• And Spotify’s Tunetorials campaign was shortlisted for two Lions in the Audio & Radio category.

Turning up the volume at Spotify Beach

All week, panelists and guests explored ideas shaping culture, fandom, and the evolving role of brands in today’s creative landscape.

Want to know what it was like on the ground? DJ X shared some of his favorite spots on-site.

 

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Monday, June 22

The week kicked off with a major announcement: this fall, Spotify and Coach will launch a global partnership entirely rooted in music.

We broke the news live during our first Spotify Beach session of the year, Building What Money Can’t Buy: New Rules of Brand Loyalty. The conversation, featuring Coach CMO Joon Silverstein, Spotify’s Global Head of Business Marketing Bridget Evans, artist Troye Sivan, and Willa Bennett, Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan and Seventeen, explored the cultural intersection of fashion, music, and identity.

Our first night wrapped at Club Côte, Spotify’s seventh annual soirée, featuring a performance from rising starSienna Spiro. Guests included Seth Meyers, musical duoSofi Tukker, actor and singer Joshua Bassett, and TV stars Antoni Porowski, Maura Higgins, and Meredith Marks.

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