Wireless Festival has announced an all female-stage.
The decision follows backlash that the festival has not included enough female artists in the lineup. Out of the 37 acts which were announced back in January, only three women (Mabel, Cardi B and Lisa Mercedez) were included. This means that of all the artists, only 8% were female.
Attention was drawn to this issue after Lily Allen tweeted a photo of the festival poster with all the male acts removed.
The struggle is real pic.twitter.com/R58zKuCaK2
— LILY ALLEN (@lilyallen) January 23, 2018
Regarding the issue, Festival Republic director Melvin Benn told Newsbeat that Wireless had originally approached more than 20 female acts who were unable to perform due to other commitments.
“We’d love to see more female acts on the festival roster in the future, however, there is a bigger industry issue at the heart of the debate on line-up diversity, with fewer female acts available at all levels,” he said.
“One of the ways Festival Republic is working to combat this problem is through our ReBalance campaign, which offers female artists studio time, mentorship, a spot on a festival line-up and much more.”
The new stage will include other female acts such as Lily Mercer, AMZ and Girld of Grime. The stage is a collaboration with Rinse FM and Smirnoff Equalising Music – a three-year campaign to increase female representation in club and festival line ups by 2020.
