Gender equality in festival lineups

Primavera Sound has just finished, and as usual, in addition to music, the festival has left us many news. The Barcelona based festival arouses passions and hatred almost equally, but truth to be told, it is an unmissable event in the festival scene. With a well-oiled machinery -a new edition in Los Angeles in 2020 was announced- and increasingly financial muscle, in 2019 the festival has given a lesson to the world after having closed out a successful edition with a gender equality within the 226 names included in the lineup, being an inspiration for other festivals.

According to the numbers, in 2017 women made up 26% of the line-up in a sample of large music festivals and less than 10% of headliners in a survey conducted in the US. After years discussing in sector panels about the gender gap in the industry and especially in the festival lineups, but not so many positive changes, in 2017 the PRS Foundation promoted Keychange, an international campaign which invests in emerging talent while encouraging music festivals and conferences to sign up to a 50/50 gender balance pledge by 2022 and to show they are serious in their commitment to gender equality in addition to offering showcasing opportunities to female talent. In these two years, more than 150 music festivals have already signed a pledge to reach 50/50 gender balance in their lineups, and although the road ahead is still long, at least things appear to be moving in the right direction.

Gender equality scenario in 2017 by Keychange

Building a lineup according to the availability of the artists, commercial purposes or that thing so rancid as the meritocracy is, must be a thing of the past. We have gone too far and it is up to us to push ourselves a bit in order to change some behaviors. Hopefully in a few years, there is no need to sign anything and there are equal opportunities for everyone -not only in the festival lineups but within the whole music industry- , but I´m afraid that nowadays all of us have some homework to do, and initiatives like Keychange are very necessary to evolve.

With festivals fighting between each others and bookers depending on who's touring, sure that building a lineup must be a nightmare but It should not be this complicated if everyone embraces this new status quo. Bringing women into the equation would make everything better. In fact, festivals should be a safe space, a mirror of this diverse society, where artists of all genres, sexual orientations, races or origins are welcome and represented.

Keychange is led by PRS Foundation, supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, in partnership with Musikcentrum Öst, Reeperbahn Festival, Iceland Airwaves, BIME, Tallinn Music Week, Way Out West, Liverpool Sound City and Mutek.

Find out more about Keychange by clicking here, or check out the list of music festivals signed up by 2022 pledge here.

Cover photograph by Matias Altbach