Jazz Festival in pledge to become gender balanced
MANCHESTER Jazz Festival bosses have promised the event will have a 50/50 gender balance in the next four years.
The event, which returns to venues across the city in July, is one of 45 festivals and music conferences to have pledged to achieve or maintain a gender balance by 2022.
Other UK events involved include the Bluedot festival in Cheshire, 53 Degrees North and Cheltenham Music Festival, alongside BBC Proms and BBC Music Introducing Stages.
The ‘Keychange’ initiative, to decrease the gender gap, was announced by the music funding charity PRS Foundation at the Canadian High Commission.
Glastonbury’s Emily Eavis, singer Imogen Heap and Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson are ambassadors of the movement, which hopes to empower women to music.
Jazz is notoriously male-dominated, the Manchester Jazz Festival said, and the initiative would be implemented within its acts, audiences, staff and commissions.
Steve Mead, artistic director, said: “I’m delighted and proud that MJF is a Keychange associate, and it’s humbling that our ambitions and achievements towards creating a more gender-balanced jazz industry are being celebrated with this initiative.
“There is, of course, plenty more to do, but I hope that, together, we can continue to inspire others to effect change for good.”
Half of all bands to play the festival last year included women in their line-up.
David Pickard, director of BBC Proms, added: “Achieving a 50/50 gender balance of contemporary composers performed at the BBC Proms is something we have been committed to for some time and consider vital to the creative development of the world’s largest classical music festival. We are delighted to be partnering with PRS for the Keychange initiative, a crucial statement for gender equality by the arts industry both in the UK and internationally.”
Vanessa Reed, chief executive of the PRS Foundation, said 40 per cent of its grantees last year were from a BAME background and 53pc featured female artists.
She said: “Our focus on gender equality in 2018 aligns with the centenary for some women being given the vote in the UK. 100 years on, the push for gender parity across society continues and with increased public awareness of inequalities across the creative industries we have an opportunity to respond and commit to tangible change in music.”
Manchester Jazz Festival returns for its 23rd year between July 20 and 28 at Albert Square and other venues in the city.