Calls for festival lineups to be more representative have been happening for years, with initiatives like Keychange making progress in persuading organisers to target 50/50 gender balances. However, the BBC is making waves this week with a study showing that only 13% of headliners at the UK’s top festivals in 2022 are women.
To be specific: 13% are all-women groups or solo artists; 12% have a mixed line-up; 0.5% (one artist) identify as non-binary; and 74.5% are men.
The article digs into the figures, noting that there is a range of gender splits when it comes to the full lineups: 60% of the artists playing the Strawberries & Creem festival are women or non-binary, for example, while Standon Calling, Green Man and Radio 1’s Big Weekend are also gender-balanced across their lineups.
Keychange’s Francine Gorman offered optimism. “I think the progress that has been made over the last couple of years is going to pay off. We are going to start seeing a lot more women and gender minority headliners across stages in the future.”
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