Photo by Crack In The Road
Yesterday music blog 'Crack In The Road' tweeted an image that revealed the profound gender imbalance in the Reading and Leeds Festival lineup. The image highlighted how the lineup featured 57 men and only one woman.
Although the festival has faced criticism in the past for their male orientated lineups, they have made no effort to become a more inclusive festival.
Promoter Melvin Benn stated in an interview with the Guardian that Reading and Leeds festival "didn't have a problem".
"We put on bands that people want to buy tickets to watch - so it's the public that makes the decision about what bands play at festivals.
"We're not the taste-makers. Putting a festival is a monstrous financial risk. The only way I balance the books is selling tickets. Why do you think we book the same male acts again and again?
"Because they sell tickets. Trust me, if there was a female act in the rock genre that sold the same amount of tickets as any one of the headline acts this year, I'd book them."
Although Benn's point is completely valid from a financial perspective, and I totally agree that headline slots should be given to popular bands (male, female and everything in between) this doesn't validate the shortage of female artists in the smaller slots.
Women do not want to be molly-coddled with special treatment or quotas that ensure that 50% of festival artists are female. However, this lineup is not representative of the music industry or the tastes of those who attend festivals.
Forbes annual Global Celebrity 100 article revealed that the out of the five top earning musicians and bands of 2016, four of them were female (Taylor Swift at $170million, Adele at $80.5 million, Madonna at $76.5million, Rihanna at $75million). Therefore it would make sense to book these artists if bookings were as heavily dependent on ticket sales as Benn claims.
Alternatively, if festivals are aiming to represent more alternative genres opposed to the mainstream artists that dominated the 'Highest Earners' list, then they don't have to look any further than the Indie Rock genre.
Online music reviewing website Album of the Year awarded thirteen of the their top twenty-five Indie Rock albums of 2016 to female artists or bands with female members. NME's article 'One to Watch - 25 Brand New Acts for 2016' also featured thirteen female artists or bands with female members.
Therefore, Reading and Leeds aren't selecting headliners on a purely financial basis, as a vast quantity of the most in-demand artists are indeed female.
Furthermore, Benn defends himself by claiming there aren't big enough female rock groups.However, Reading and Leeds have given headline slots to male artists and bands from other genres, such as Electronic duo Disclosure in 2016, folk group Mumford and Sons in 2015, rap artist Eminem in 2013 and 2001.
It is possible to have festivals that include a larger range of female artists, as proven by festivals such as the Isle of Wight and Bestival; and this should extend to different races and sexualities. Representation is the first step towards change and equality.
Bestival's Rob da Bank said: "I made a real effort (in 2015) to have more women on our lineup, because it has been a talking point for the last few years. A lot of these women are vocal on social media about wanting to see strong women performers.
"Obviously we're not near equality yet. And we do face the problem that most musical acts are male. But although that's not a festival promoter's fault, it is something we can address by getting a lot of big, strong, female names at the top of our lineup".
This is not social justice and PC gone mad. There is so much musical talent that comes in every shape and form and it should get the representation that it deserves.
Women currently make up less than 2% of their lineup, and although there is still time to announce more female acts, only having one female performer so far is simply ludicrous in this day and age.
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