WE’RE TRYING OUR LEVEL FEST
Playground boss reveals female line-up
Gordon Blackstock Rising music festival Playground announced two megastar acts to its bill yesterday as it strives towards equal gender representation.
Organisers said Scottish electropop outfit CHVRCHES, fronted by Lauren Mayberry, and American pop pioneer Neneh Cherry will close the Saturday of this summer’s event.
The fes t iva l , held in Rouken Glen Park in East Renfrewshire, will boast a 45 per cent fema le l ine- up this August.
Sources sa id more female names wil l be revealed over the coming weeks.
Festival founder and organiser Brian Traynor said: “We have worked hard to bring together a world- class line-up of musicians for Playground Festival 2020 and we are delighted to announce CHVRCHES and Neneh Cherry as our Saturday headliners.”
The announcement comes amid an ongoing row over how many females play the UK’s festival circuit.
Last year, it was revealed women made up just 26 per cent of the line-ups in the UK. And the organisers of Scotland’s biggest music festival, TRNSMT, found themselves at the centre of the row after their line-up was revealed in November, revealing just two female acts.
TRNSMT organiser Geoff Ellis went on to suggest the disparity was because there wasn’t enough females “picking up guitars”.
He said at the time: “Obviously we would like to have more female artists in our line-up. There will be more. But the problem is that, proportionally to male artists, there is nowhere near as many female artists at each level.”
Singer KT Tunstal l hit back, claiming: “Geoff Ellis’s statement is simply not the truth.”
Playground will take place from Friday, July 31, to Sunday, August 2.
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