More female musicians on stage: Male dominance at festivals is declining

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More musicians on stage
Male dominance at festivals is falling

The music industry also wants to give women more opportunities. Festivals are still mostly headlined by men, but the line-ups are slowly becoming more female. Some organizers even rely exclusively on women.

When the sister festivals “Hurricane” in Scheeßel in Lower Saxony and “Southside” in Neuhausen ob Eck in Baden-Württemberg start on Friday, it will be mostly men on stage. Only artists like Materia, Peter Fox or die Ärzte are booked as headliners. The same applies to the “Deichband” festival in Cuxhaven in July, which features KIZ or SDP as the main acts.

Recently there has been a lot of criticism of male dominance, and the industry has responded. Singers like Nina Chuba, Lilly Palmer or Badmómzjay bear witness to this on “Hurricane” and “Southside”. “In fact, all of our festival line-ups have become more diverse over the years,” says Jonas Rohde from organizer FKP Scorpio. In the past, the proportion of bands with at least one female person was between 15 and 25 percent. On the “Hurricane” and the “Southside” it was around 31 percent this year.

With this method of counting – even a woman in a five-piece band increases the quota – Rohde is adhering to the specifications of the Keychance movement, which aims to achieve gender equality in the music industry in the long term. But if you count all the performers and band members who are on stage in Scheeßel and Neuhausen ob Eck this year, you come to a pure women’s share of around 15 percent.

“Too few female artists function as headliners”

In protest against male dominance at rock shows, comedian Carolin Kebekus organized an all-female festival in Cologne last year – just one day after “Rock am Ring” and “Rock im Park”. Thousands of spectators came. Jonas Rohde says that increasing the proportion of women “is not easy to implement as long as there are not enough relevant names in the genres that interest us”. In particular, the pool of female artists who act as headliners is still too small. Lena Zielinski from “Deichbrand” also says that the big international women are not affordable and others are not big enough to appear as headliners. Also, many female acts are currently selling fewer tickets than well-known national male acts. “That has to and can very well change,” emphasizes Zielinski. This requires many measures from the entire music industry.

Anika Jankowski from the “Music S Women” network knows the arguments. It is true that there are actually fewer female musicians than male musicians in rock. “But if you want, you can find them, even as headliners,” she emphasizes. Her initiative offers a nationwide database of female musicians to make them more visible.

But she also knows that nothing will change “from now on”. Nevertheless, she is “cautiously optimistic” for the future, says Jankowski. As a positive example, she cites the “apple tree garden” festival, which attracts 6,500 fans to Diepholz in Lower Saxony on the first weekend in August. “The line-up is not complete yet, but in the end the male and female acts will be balanced – and the mixed ones will still be ‘on top’,” says organizer Lisa Canehl. She admits: “It also means a bit more work than if we just booked straight away.”

“Women are less encouraged”

Visitors to smaller festivals would also be more willing to accept that they also get to see lesser-known artists. “You also have to trust yourself.” The fact that there are fewer female music greats than male ones is also due to the fact that women are given less support. “If you don’t build what you’re looking for, then that doesn’t exist either,” says Lisa Canehl. Kate Tempest or Aurora booked the “apple tree garden” festival when hardly anyone knew them. “And they came back as headliners.”

The organizer FKP Scorpio has recognized this and created the “Gamechanger” competition for the first time, in which the winner is awarded a place in the “Hurricane” and “Southside” programmes. The contest not only promotes female newcomers, but also draws attention to the topic, says Jonas Rohde. The Leipzig songwriter Karo Lynn won.

The “New Port” stage was launched at the “Deichbrand”, almost 70 percent of the newcomers appearing there are women. In this way, the musicians could generate new fans, says Lisa Zielinski. “The more people hear good songs and experience them live, the more likely it is that they will attract a larger fan base, sell tickets – and at some point be able to headline a festival,” she emphasizes.



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