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Female acts at festivals


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Over the past month or so there's been a noticeable amount of attention thrust upon female acts (or lack thereof) at festivals - Neil mentioned in the headliner thread that he'd heard Glastonbury were making a push at getting more female acts on the Pyramid, the Reading/Leeds lineup came under scrutiny for containing barely any female acts, and today Bestival announced their newest batch of acts with the header 'Bestival shows the love for all the ladies in the house' followed by an all female list of acts.

Been discussed a bit in the headliner thread (and i'm sure the Reading board and Bestival board) but i'm just wondering, have I missed something that's happened to provoke these new pushes for more female acts? And (also discussed a bit in the headliner thread) what do people think of it? I guess it'll be easier to give reactions / opinions once the Glastonbury lineup is out and we can see the true extent of it, but it's obviously an interesting move from the festival(s)

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As long as I like the music, I don't care who is behind it. On the other hand, if I don't like it then I also don't care who is behind it. I'm not a fan of female artists getting the push up just because they're female, but if they deserve it then by all means.

I think one of the problems with this has been that "traditional" festival acts have tended to be male, not all obviously, but festival acts are becoming more diverse and that will translate into a greater variety of performers coming through.

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I fully support the idea that Glastonbury (or any other festival for that matter) should push Female artists into more prominent slots to contribute to changing the industry for the better, encouraging girls to pick up instruments etc.

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I know it is a bit bandwagonesque, but I am all for a bit of pro-female booking if it helps give the industry a leg up into the modern world.

It's always been a problem in music, noticeably in the 1990s when Annie Lennox was getting best british Female artist awards in years she hadn't released anything simply because of the lack of a credible alternative selling records at the time.

I would have no problem in Glastonbury going for a bit of positive discrimination.

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Back in September when I had to pick my dissertation subject I chose, essentially, this (slightly wider than just festivals though).

It's one of those naturally accepted things that a band is 4 blokes. It's been a massive issue for years, look at bands like the Slits and then Bikini Kill trying to draw attention to it, but nothing has really changed and it hasn't fully entered the mainstream as a problem people should care about. Thankfully now with the "fourth wave" of feminism things such as R&L's incredible lack of diversity are being highlighted. A bit of affirmative action is a good thing, IMO.

This is good for me though, had very few statistics when I chose this, now my dissertation's writing itself.

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What I'm not a fan of is people or the media or festival bosses or whoever treating female bands or women in bands as a novelty.

That's why the Bestival announcement today kinda sucked. Yeah it's cool they've booked all these acts, but I dunno why segregating all the female acts into a separate announcement & making a song and dance of it had to happen. Reeked of a PR stunt really.

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It did look a little like a PR stunt, yeah, possibly because of what I saw as the slightly clunky "let's hear it for the ladies" line. But when you think about it, they didn't book all those people as a PR stunt, they were booked long before. Bestival is just a festival with a more diverse lineup and they decided to draw attention to it due to the recent outrage. Is it any different, or indeed worse, than Glastonbury purposefully booking acts because they're female to give the festival more female representation? I'll forgive Bestival for drawing attention to one of the good things about their festival.

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It did look a little like a PR stunt, yeah, possibly because of what I saw as the slightly clunky "let's hear it for the ladies" line. But when you think about it, they didn't book all those people as a PR stunt, they were booked long before. Bestival is just a festival with a more diverse lineup and they decided to draw attention to it due to the recent outrage.

I agree and, as others have said, i have no problem with female artists being bumped up as long as they're good, though of course that's subjective. What i wouldn't like is suddenly excess amounts of (scantily clad) pop singers with emphasis on costume changes and dance routines - partly because it's not to my taste but also because i'm not sure that really helps

the cause. Whether said artists dress like that because the industry, or society, forces them to (and whether the media focusses on it excessively) is a wider issue but i don't think having loads more in prominent glastonbury slots would address that.

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What I'm not a fan of is people or the media or festival bosses or whoever treating female bands or women in bands as a novelty.

That's why the Bestival announcement today kinda sucked. Yeah it's cool they've booked all these acts, but I dunno why segregating all the female acts into a separate announcement & making a song and dance of it had to happen. Reeked of a PR stunt really.

I agree with you there Matt, I think Rob da Bank has got it wrong though, I do think R/L got it wrong as well with a complete sparsity of female acts.

I don't think that's festival bosses should go out of their way to books acts just because they are female, it's brilliant to have a good balance and to promote equality, but to force it upon people, and risk weakening the line up just to please a small minority of people with a bee in their bonnet, it's not worth it.

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What do you mean by 'a small minority of people with a bee in their bonnet?'

I don't re-call it being a problem over the years, this years R/L line up seems to have sparked up the debate and put pressure on festival bookers to booker more female acts, so there's obviously a group of people driving home the point? I'm only saying I don't think an act should be booked, just because they are female, when there's a better/more suitable act for the same slot

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I have no preference for the sex of any music artists, if they produce good music to my tastes, then I will buy their output.

I don't think there should be any pressure on any festival to book more female artists simply to tick a box.

I would be surprised to find out that Glastonbury Festival has been actively avoiding female artists, I just don't believe that would happen with this festival.

Which must mean that there is a significant lack of female artists in the industry, for them or any festival to book, in relation to the number of male artists, which unfortunately is true is the majority of workplaces.

So in reality, the problem isnt something a festival can address, if the choice is sparse.

The music industry needs to address the issue. But do they? The music industry in interested in one thing, money. I fail to believe that if they thought that there was sufficient female talent to make them lots of money, they wouldn't be producing it.

So are they simply reacting to the stats of the buying public? Do we in general prefer male artists to female artists?

Mmmmm, a puzzle for sure.

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I agree with you there Matt, I think Rob da Bank has got it wrong though, I do think R/L got it wrong as well with a complete sparsity of female acts.

I don't think that's festival bosses should go out of their way to books acts just because they are female, it's brilliant to have a good balance and to promote equality, but to force it upon people, and risk weakening the line up just to please a small minority of people with a bee in their bonnet, it's not worth it.

RdB got it very wrong by the use of "ladies". ;)

But you're on the wrong tack to think they're getting booked just because they're female. At Glastonbury, it's about making sure they're not booking all-male line-ups without a second thought.

The female acts are out there, and they're good enough - but for too many people they're an after-thought because of the current male domination. That only changes if you stop making them that after-thought.

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I don't re-call it being a problem over the years, this years R/L line up seems to have sparked up the debate and put pressure on festival bookers to booker more female acts, so there's obviously a group of people driving home the point? I'm only saying I don't think an act should be booked, just because they are female, when there's a better/more suitable act for the same slot

It has always been a problem, if you look back to the Slits etc you can see that. Its just that women are finally being listened to about it.

I do think that it needs to start somewhere, when my daughter goes to a festival and sees band after band made up of men what sort of message is that? I tell her she can do anything she wants in life, be anything but if she doesnt actually see women in these roles then she doesnt believe me, so she can be katy perry or taylor swift but she cant form a rock band with her mates.

When you start seeing more women being represented in all forms of music so then more women will start doing it and more labels will buy it.

If Glastonbury cant lead the way with all of their ethos and background then who can and if people dont like it then they can always go to Reading.

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It has always been a problem, if you look back to the Slits etc you can see that. Its just that women are finally being listened to about it.

I do think that it needs to start somewhere, when my daughter goes to a festival and sees band after band made up of men what sort of message is that? I tell her she can do anything she wants in life, be anything but if she doesnt actually see women in these roles then she doesnt believe me, so she can be katy perry or taylor swift but she cant form a rock band with her mates.

When you start seeing more women being represented in all forms of music so then more women will start doing it and more labels will buy it.

If Glastonbury cant lead the way with all of their ethos and background then who can and if people dont like it then they can always go to Reading.

That's pretty much perfect. Hard for anyone to argue against that, surely?

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It has always been a problem, if you look back to the Slits etc you can see that. Its just that women are finally being listened to about it.

I do think that it needs to start somewhere, when my daughter goes to a festival and sees band after band made up of men what sort of message is that? I tell her she can do anything she wants in life, be anything but if she doesnt actually see women in these roles then she doesnt believe me, so she can be katy perry or taylor swift but she cant form a rock band with her mates.

When you start seeing more women being represented in all forms of music so then more women will start doing it and more labels will buy it.

If Glastonbury cant lead the way with all of their ethos and background then who can and if people dont like it then they can always go to Reading.

On yourself Kate, I have no arguments to that anyway. :P

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