New gender-focussed UK study released.
A new study of UK festivals released by BBC Newsbeat has found that only 13% of 2022’s headliners are women.
FULL SURVEY HERE: Music festivals: Only 13% of UK headliners in 2022 are female
It’s not really a huge surprise to us but yet again it highlights just how male-dominated the music industry still is.
A study of 50 UK festival line-ups and their 200 headline acts for the 2022 summer festival season found:
- Solo men and all-male bands account for 74.5% percent of headline sets at festivals
- 13% (26 of 200) are solo women artists or all-female bands
- 12% are mixed-gender groups
- Non-binary acts make up just 0.5% of festival headliners
The CEO of the UK Association of Independent Festivals, Paul Reed, said that the problem exists in “the wider music industry ecosystem,” and “festivals can be somewhat of an easy target for this…They are annual events and they do publish their entire line-ups very visually on a poster.”
“It’s definitely disappointing,” says Maggie Rogers, back in the UK this summer to perform at Latitude Festival.
“What I come to music for – as a fan and artist – is community and to feel part of something, and I think community functions at its best when it feels inclusive.
“When that doesn’t happen – when the line-ups reiterate imbalances that exist in gender and race and class – it’s not surprising, but it’s certainly not ideal.”
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