Australian music festival criticised for including only one woman in lineup
It's lamentable that even in 2016, women still need to fight their way onto music festival stages.
The issue has been brought into focus yet again thanks to a festival called Spilt Milk in Canberra, Australia, which is set to take place in December. The festival features popular Aussie acts such as Flume, Client Liaison, Hermitude and Violent Soho, among others.
However, festival organisers forgot one crucial thing in their initial announcement of the event: Women artists.
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Spilt Milk features only one woman on its first lineup -- singer-songwriter Vera Blue -- amid the 15 other all-male artists. Unsurprisingly, that gender balance did not go down well with prominent Australian female DJs, KLP and Nina Las Vegas, who made their displeasure known on Twitter.
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A post by Danny Flung on the festival's Facebook page also called the gender balance a "poor effort."
Some people took exception to Flung's post, not seeing any issue with the inequitable lineup. "Why aren't people getting up tight about the gender ratio for metal concerts, edm festivals, rap concerts, shit like that," one person wrote.
"Not gender related at all. It's about who's big right now. It's not about making a balanced line up its about who is touring when the festival is on and who is going to bring the most people to the festival. If its a male great, [or] its female great," wrote another commenter.
The lack of women included in Australian music festival lineups is part of a larger trend, according to a report by ABC's Hack, particularly in electronic music.
In the report, electronic music festivals such as Listen Out and Stereosonic lagged behind on equality, with 9 and 10 percent of their lineups consisting of females respectively. Broader music festivals such as Splendour In The Grass and Laneway Festival had lineups that were made up of more than 30 percent women.
The whole situation is ridiculous, especially given there is no shortage of great women artists Down Under. Local acts such as Courtney Barnett, Tkay Maidza, George Maple, Ngaiire and Sampa The Great have been killing it.
Spilt Milk issued a statement to Mashable Australia via email suggesting it would attempt to rectify the issue in its second lineup announcement.
"Gender inequality exists throughout society and we all have an obligation to help foster change, an opportunity we missed with our initial announcement ... Assembling exciting line ups for events of this nature is incredibly complex, with many different, and often competing, contributing factors.
"With our growing understanding of this issue, and recognising that every small step matters, we are committed to delivering more opportunities for female artists to help move the industry in the right direction."
Let this be a friendly reminder that speaking up on issues of equality can bring about timely change to our stages.
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Topics Music
