The Gender Imbalance of Festival Headliners
The argument for gender representation in the music industry is starting to feel like a record stuck on repeat. As a woman in the industry, I can comment first-hand on the lack of diversity across all roles, from artists to behind the scene managers. One musical aspect that people have been yearning to see more gender diversity in is festival line-ups. 30% of festival-goers look at the line up’s diversity before booking and people aren’t afraid to call out festivals for their lack of female talent; one festival that has been put under constant scrutiny is Leeds/Reading.
Like many events in 2020, Leeds/Reading has been forced to postpone the event until 2021. However, the organisers were determined to make this year better than any before and have increased the number of headliners from 3 to 6. This is great news, so why are people complaining? For the seventh year in a row there are no female headliners. Seven. Years. Are festival planners really expecting us to believe that they couldn’t find a suitable female headliner in seven whole years? Every single year I see countless articles claiming how people are furious about the lack of female acts and how it has to change. Yet, people are screaming to an empty room – nothing ever changes.
Since the year 2000, Foo Fighters have headlined Leeds/Reading more times than all women combined. Yet, festival organiser Melvin Benn said “I don’t think sidelining exists, but there was a lack of opportunity. But there’s an abundance of opportunity now”. He’s right in one aspect – there are lots of opportunities for female artists to perform in places like Leeds/Reading festival. Sadly for these female artists, Melvin Benn is the person supplying these opportunities and he seems very reluctant to provide them. He later went on to claim that “it’s never been about the gender of the band, it’s been about the quality of the band”. This is insulting for many reasons, the biggest being that he’s insinuating that there aren’t many female artists due to their lack of talent.
This is an argument I’ve seen numerous times – we can’t book more females just for the sake of it, they still need to be good. It seems like festival organisers are scared of giving female artists a chance because then they’d be accused of hiring based purely on their gender. However, by doing this they are denying opportunities based on gender; women have to prove themselves so much more than male artists do to even be considered for a headline spot. Billie Eilish, for example, sold 500,000 tickets in the first hour of sales for her latest tour. Yet, you will see 26 names before hers on the 2019 Leeds/Reading line-up poster.
In 2018, many UK festivals agreed to commit to a 50/50 gender split in 2022. Some people may think it’s ridiculous that festivals are aiming for this target, but extreme action seems to be the only way to cure festivals of their lack of gender diversity. For everyone saying it will never happen, the line-up for Glastonbury 2020 was 52% female, so it is possible if you try. It’s sad that the only way female artists can get booked for festivals is by actively aiming for this 50/50 split, but at least they’re doing something.
It’s easy to say that female artists will be considered or that they’ll aim to book more, but unless you actively hire more women, you’ll always fall back into the comfort zone of all-male line-ups. After all, repetition is human nature. Glastonbury boss Emily Eavis herself said that “unless you consciously do that and change the minds of the bookers, then it will just roll out in the same way that it has done for years.”
I don’t personally agree that the only way to book more female artists is to actively disregard male artists. However, women have been trying for years to get noticed in this way and this seems the only viable way to book more female artists until it becomes the norm. It’s easy to book more male artists, because frankly the music industry is completely male-dominated. Amplify Her Voice showed that 82% of artists across the music industry are men. The lack of female talent at Leeds/Reading isn’t just a direct act of festival bookers, but a representation of a wider issue across the whole industry. This festival, in a way, is very representative of the industry as a whole, showing how few female artists there are. However, just because there are fewer female artists out there doesn’t mean that they are any less deserving of a headliner title. In fact, at the end of 2019, two out of the top three artists were women, so the argument that women are less popular doesn’t really swing either.
Every year Leeds/Reading get battered about their lack of diversity, so why don’t they do something about it? Apart from obvious stubbornness and ignorance, it’s because people are almost tricked into thinking diversity is there when it really isn’t. A study showed that 49% thought diversity in Leeds/Reading festival had increased over the years. To be honest, they are completely right. In 2017, the line-up included 57 men and 1 woman. So, there is an obvious increase from one female act to the seven or eight we see in the 2021 line-up. So, technically, yes there has been an increase in diversity – but it’s still only seven female acts. This comes back to the phrase I hear all the time – “women always want more”. We should all be grateful for what increase we’ve got and stop complaining that the number is still low.
The frustration about Leeds/Reading’s lack of gender diversity, for me, is aimed more at the festival bookers than the fact itself. Every small attempt to include more female talent is a positive in my eyes, even if it’s increasing from one to seven – any increase is better than no increase at all. What’s more blood-boiling is how the festival bookers claim that gender diversity is not their problem. It’s true that the lack of representation is due to a wider problem in the music industry, but for someone with the power to represent more women to refuse and remove themselves from the situation allows the cycle to continue.
Leeds/Reading’s lack of female headliners reflects a deep-rooted issue across the music industry. Female artists are constantly pushed aside due to the ease of male success. The problem is that you have to try harder to include women and actively break the cycle. In a fast-paced industry, bookers would much rather take the quick and easy route of rebooking the same male acts than look for the perfect female fit.
Whilst the statistics I’ve featured have been shocking, the most bewildering fact is that Leeds/Reading is the 6th most representative festival. Even with everything we know, there are (shockingly) still many more festivals with worse representation – Download festival is at the bottom of the bunch with a tiny 3% female line-up.
Written by Suzie Letts
Hey, I’m Suzie! I’ve recently finished my undergraduate degree at King’s College London and currently work as a Social Media Marketing Officer for an international music summer school. I also work freelance for various musical artists to create social media strategies and online content. As a musician, I love writing and performing everything from classical to musical theatre and spend a lot of my time playing in orchestras and bands across the country.