Whoa men, we need more festival girlpower
Plenty of women are making music, they’re on album covers, singing in videos, performing shows. So why aren’t they headlining music festivals, asks Alan Perrott.
If it was a long way to the top for rockers AC/ DC, how much further would they have had to travel if they were women? Well, if they were counting on a boost from festival exposure they’d probably be nowhere because women are rarely invited on to the big stage.
And, to be honest, that’s a fact I’ve never thought about. As with most punters (I assume), I check out a lineup and if it takes my fancy I’ll go along without any consideration to gender balance or general diversity.
Is that a bad thing? No, I don’t think so, music is subjective and whether the performer is male or female is irrelevant.
But is it something that should be given priority by those curating those festival lineups?
Absolutely. Especially in a country boasting quality artists ranging from Tami Neilson, Emily Edrosa and Ladi 6, to the Beths, Jess B and Lorde, there is no excuse not to have women at the top of every bill.
And yet… not so much.
That’s how it has always been, everywhere. If you disregard sundry ancient civilisations, the odd religious gathering and annual cultural events, the first proper music festival was California’s Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival in 1967 – two days of music, with only five acts featuring women.
It wasn’t much, but it was better than the Monterey Pop Festival a week later, which only found room for four female acts over four days.
The pat excuse is that the ratio reflects maledomination of rock, pop and hip-hop – and maybe there was once a point there.
But, with more than 50 years having now passed since the Summer of Love, a lot must surely have changed. Let’s check out the Instagram account lineupswithoutmales, which takes New Zealand and Australian festival posters and blanks out the all-male acts. Hmmm, with a few exceptions these events are looking rather threadbare and way too many are blank.
The oft-lamented Big Day Out festivals were repeat offenders. In the early years, only four headline spots were women and that was only two acts – P J Harvey and Hole appeared twice.
Why? Plenty of women are making music, they’re on album covers, singing in videos, performing shows, and taking promotional selfies. Economically it makes little sense either, given the financial clout of the female audience.
All that seems to have changed are the excuses, the top acts are expensive and difficult to attract, male audiences like male performers, there aren’t enough female stars of the required calibre, and ‘‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’’.
And sure, festivals are businesses – fragile businesses at that – so any notion they should be socio-political gatekeepers is silly, but change is as necessary as it is inevitable.
The Keychange initiative kicked off in Britain this year with more than 100 Northern Hemisphere festivals signing on to achieve a 50/50 gender split by 2022. And it’s not just about the kids. The BBC Proms has committed to commissioning women for half of its classical pieces (while doing little about the paucity of women performing them).
The most extreme response has been Sweden’s Statement event which, as a reaction to the sexual violence at the country’s largest festival, declared itself a ‘‘cis man-free’’ zone. Only women, transgender and non-binary people could attend or perform and subsequent complaints resulted in an investigation by the Swedish Equality Ombudsman.
As ever though, talking about something and following through are very different things. There’s even a good argument that promoters should simply do it without fanfare so as to not scare the snowflake male audience.
So what are the odds of success?
Sandy Mill, an accomplished vocalist/musician with an undeniable CV, is one musician not holding her breath.
‘‘Gender imbalance has been around forever in almost every facet of life. We had to fight to get a vote and we’re still fighting in so many areas, so as far as gender balance in music festival lineups go, I believe it’s a great thing to try to achieve but I don’t know, it was such a difficult task just to get to this point.
‘‘Some festivals like Splore and Aum are way ahead, while others are scraping by with one or two token female acts or a band with a ‘girl’ in it.
‘‘It’s hard though. I feel like I shouldn’t name the offending festivals – and there’s a load of them – in case I blow my chances at scoring a gig, and you know, I laugh at this, but that’s the reality.’’
So, what do the people who book festivals in this country say?
It turns out there’s considerable commonality, while acknowledging the issue each faces the challenge of assembling a quality lineup in the face of geography, the New Zealand dollar and international competition. How these issues
‘‘Festivals like Splore and Aum are way ahead, while others are scraping by with one or two token female acts... It’s hard though, I feel like I shouldn’t name the offending festivals in case I blow my chances at scoring a gig... that’s the reality.’’ Sandy Mill
express themselves seems to depend on the nature of the festival.
Diversity is written into Splore’s DNA. As a child of the American Burning Man movement, its philosophy of radical inclusion works both ways.
All sorts of people attend the weekend festival in Auckland’s Tapapakanga Regional Park, and all sorts perform. It’s almost like attracting like with a significant female skew, and that diversity has a strong influence on behaviour.
‘‘So we’ve never really had a policy,’’ says festival director John Minty, ‘‘because we haven’t had to have one.’’
Gisborne-based Rhythm and Vines is similar but also the polar opposite. Also a weekend event where the overall experience can outweigh the quality of the lineup, the audience is much younger, more male and, quite often, drunk. Men dominate on stage.
Co-founder Hamish Pinkerton says Vines wants to be part of the gender conversation but faces significant challenges.
Straddling New Year’s Eve is problematic when it comes to attracting acts – it’s the most fought over date of the year – while Vines’ target audience can be difficult to predict in terms of taste and behaviour. So given it takes most of the year to nail down a lineup, safety-first is a necessity.
But given it is dance-oriented, you’d think boosting the number of female DJs would be an easy start.
Contrasting with both is Laneway. As a one-day, inner-city event, it’s all about the music, with the bonus of leveraging off the brand’s Australian shows.
As a result, co-promoter Mark Kneebone is bullish when it comes to diversity, despite having not quite reached the 50/50 target.
‘‘Those old arguments against female artists are redundant, we’re not in the 80s any more, so everyone in the industry has a responsibility to promote equality across the board. No-one can say there isn’t a lot of amazing female talent coming through.
‘‘But the lineup always comes first, and it has to reflect the audience. Festivals don’t exist in a bubble, and the Laneway audience is probably about 55-45 female.
‘‘But even if it wasn’t, festivals have a huge ability to set a tone and it’s hugely apparent when that’s not done right.’’
All well and good, but what is also apparent is that even if the 50/50 musician gender split arrived tomorrow there is still a very long way to go when it comes to getting more women in charge.