It’s Not Just Reading and Leeds, Women Are Under-Represented in Every Festival Line-Up

In an interview with the Guardian last Summer, Slits guitarist Viv Albertine recounted the oppositional approach to female-fronted rock-bands that, some forty years later, very much remains a thing. “The A&R men, the bouncers, the sound mixers, no one took us seriously. People just didn’t want us around”, she said. The comment, especially the last sentence, seems pertinent when you look at the acts booked for 2015’s music festivals. Reading and Leeds announced their line-up last night and once everyone, including myself, had recovered from nearly dying at the idea of Kendrick, Boy Better Know and Marmozets on the same bill, the Twitterati began to pick up on the fact that just nine artists out of the ninety-six announced included a female member. That’s a shocking amount. That’s less than ten percent. And, unfortunately, the problem goes way deeper than just Reading and Leeds.

Just take a look at the line-up for this year’s Slam Dunk festival, announced this morning.

Leaving the female acts on the bill, there’s just one name: PVRIS.

Looking back at other line-ups, it’s clear there’s a wide spread lack of female artists on loads of festival bills. Download features only nine bands with non-male members and both T in the Park and Coachella’s rosters look bare when the male-fronted artists have been removed.

In her book Clothes Clothes Clothes, Music Music Music, Boys Boys Boys Viv Albertine stated that “women were sneered at whatever they did, so to rise above that you had to be doubly scary." But as 2014 proved – a year where females dominated the pop charts and news cycles – things have progressed since then. Artists like Bjork, St Vincent, Azealia Banks, Beyonce, Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift have proved it’s entirely possible to be a world-dominating force on your own terms. So why then, with a growing number of powerful female figureheads in music, do festival bills clearly seem to prioritise male acts? The unintelligent and stunted humans of the world believe it’s because “80% of bands with girls in suck” – but that’s just not true. You only need to spend five-minutes working at a music publication or sifting through Soundcloud to find that actually 80% of all music sucks, regardless of gender. One reason there may be less women on the line-up, with specific focus on the rock festivals, comes down to Britain’s alt-rock scene. As Noisey writer Hannah Ewens found when writing about the UK alt-rock scene, it’s too often a place where “girls are a) side-lined, b) fetishised and/or tokenized for having great music taste or c) dismissed as the girlfriend that doesn’t like music at all.” And rock festival line-ups seem to be pretty reflective of this, cementing the image of a male-engineered environment where it’s far too hard for female artists to gain some proper recognition.

Melvin Benn, the managing director of Festival Republic who booked Reading and Leeds - claims women aren’t side-lined, and insisted in an interview with Gigwise that there’s “an abundance of opportunity” for female artists to get on festival bills. It’s an insistence that tries to shift the blame, suggesting that the opportunities are equal, but the availability of quality artists isn’t, so it’s supposedly impossible to have balanced line ups. This was ‘explained’ in the most hamfisted manner possible by Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman when he was quizzed by Wondering Sound’s Megan Seling last summer as she investigated his festival’s dodgy oversights. “If you Google-search bands in the world, the vast majority of them are male. That’s a correct assumption, right?” said Kevin.

This bullshit 'assumption' is the main problem causing the cyclical pattern in which less and less female artists are getting booked, when, in reality there are plenty who are absolutely killing it right now. Where’s Perfect Pussy – not only the best named band in the world but also, in front-woman Meredith Graves, perhaps the most important female figures in punk since Kathleen Hanna? What about Against Me! who put out one of the best albums of last year or Sleater-Kinney, who reformed this year? Then you’ve got White Lung, Joanna Gruesome, Savages, and Warpaint – all examples of bands that could feasibly be placed on any rock-heavy line-up, anywhere in the country.

If, as many bookers would have you believe, the Reading and Leeds line-up is reflective of the average music attendee’s iPod, then it’s because female artists are still being neglected, not because they don’t exist. The blame doesn’t just lie with the festivals – the country's leading music magazine, NME, have put just eight women on their cover in the last three years, and scanning over Kerrang's past issues page shows although they're doing their part, the cover is rarely given solely to a woman, suggesting the media also carry some culpability.

But increasingly, as all of the above female artists have proved, they’re gaining recognition from releasing music that rips, regardless of whether they’re given a main stage or a cover. And power to them. But it’s up to the music festivals – who don’t have ABC’s to retain – to showcase the talents of female artists with the same spread as their male counterparts. Maybe they need better bookers, maybe the bands mentioned above weren’t available, but neither of those reasons are good enough to result in a 90/10 gender split.

And for some handy suggestions, here’s some killer female acts that can, should, and probably will play festivals:

Swearin’
Caves
Bjork
St Vincent
Beyonce
Rihanna
Nicki Minaj
Sky Ferreira
Azealia Banks
Angel Haze
Sleater Kinney
Joanna Gruesome
Against Me
Perfect Pussy
Chumped
Jessie Ware
Sia
Savages
Warpaint
White Lung
Hannah Diamond
GFOTY
Bat for Lashes
Chvrches
Marmozets
Haim
The Julie Ruin
Tegan and Sara
Speedy Ortiz
Missy Elliott
Beach House
Jenny Lewis
Colleen Green
Grimes
Le Tigre
Jhene Aiko
FKA Twigs
Doja Cat
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Brooke Candy
Adventures
Katy Perry
Code Orange
King Woman
Pins
Zola Jesus
Tune-Yards
Waxahatchee
Colleen Green
Priests
Paramore
Chastity Belt
Charli XCX
Tove Lo
Courtney Barnett
Babymetal
Lower Dens
Best Coast
Marika Hackman
Kilo Kish
Purity Ring
Little Dragon
SZA
Tokimonsta
Lady Gaga
PJ Harvey
Laura Marling
Tinashe
Shura
Wolf Alice
Lily Allen
First Aid Kit
The Internet
Deers
MIA
Santigold
Torres
THEESatisfaction
Maya Jane Coles
Kelis
Ibeyi
Nightwave
Grouper
Emmy The Great
Natalie Prass
Alice Glass
Milk Teeth
Dej Loaf
Brody Dalle
La Roux

Plus, obviously, a butt-load more.

You can find Ryan Bassil on Twitter: @RyanBassil