Lineup 2020

[NerdsNatterings]

1 minute ago, Isambard said:

I meant in general. i.e. if the ratio of male to female bands to choose from overall is say 60/40 then that would be a realistic ratio to try to achieve.

I'd say it varies based on position on the line-up. There is quite a big problem with there only being a handful of acts they could pick to book in higher slots (in terms of bands, the only potential headliners that come to mind are Paramore and Florence, with Wolf Alice a possible sub/3rd down). There might be a couple of others but there is definitely a massive imbalance there. As you get lower down there are a lot more female fronted acts that would be in contention to play, not sure what ratio but I'd be guess its not great.

 

IMO festivals like Reading should be trying to help create change, influence the industry. Book more female acts to get their names out there, help stamp out the image that 'being in bands is a lads thing' (unfortunately the view that some people seem to have). 

[Metalupyourass97]

I dont see how you could go 50/50 gender balance at a festival, it depends who's touring and who's popular at the time, yeah this announcement has been low on female fronted acts but theres still 140+ acts to come 

Edited February 13, 2020 by Metalupyourass97

[jamieaslee]

To achieve equality of outcome there has to be the same amount of men/ women making music surely? I think a real aim would be to motivate and offer more opportunities for women to start making music and then really give them the same opportunities as men once they have. - I think there is a scheme that Melvin Benn runs around this from memory?

If there are twice as many men making and releasing music, you'll get twice as many on festival lineups. Although, I do agree with a lot of the names mentioned previously that should be billed.

People seem to foget it's a business and they have to shift tickets too, so political correctness only comes into play if they first think those artists will shift tickets (which I do). It's more complex than having 100 acts and 50 of those must be women.

It wouldn't surprise me if there are a lot more in the next announcement anyway...

Edited February 13, 2020 by jamieaslee

[biggest032]

7 hours ago, jonnyisRFC said:

Sunday tickets for Reading  are £5 more expensive than Friday and Saturday. 
 

That rage booking has hit FR’s pocket hard 😂

so was sunday last year with foo fighters . 

[theesundayroast]

14 minutes ago, jamieaslee said:

To achieve equality of outcome there has to be the same amount of men/ women making music surely? I think a real aim would be to motivate and offer more opportunities for women to start making music and then really give them the same opportunities as men once they have. - I think there is a scheme that Melvin Benn runs around this from memory?

If there are twice as many men making and releasing music, you'll get twice as many on festival lineups. Although, I do agree with a lot of the names mentioned previously that should be billed.

People seem to foget it's a business and they have to shift tickets too, so political correctness only comes into play if they first think those artists will shift tickets (which I do). It's more complex than having 100 acts and 50 of those must be women.

It wouldn't surprise me if there are a lot more in the next announcement anyway...

Have to say I think you have it spot on there.

It's all about the grassroots.

[eFestivals]

22 minutes ago, NerdsNatterings said:

IMO festivals like Reading should be trying to help create change, influence the industry. Book more female acts to get their names out there, help stamp out the image that 'being in bands is a lads thing' (unfortunately the view that some people seem to have). 

and they are, but in a different way.

https://www.festivalrepublic.com/news/were-proud-announce-our-new-project-rebalance

They could probably do more, but they're not doing nothing.

[Isambard]

The Regrettes have a guy in their band so what does that count as  ??  male / female / mixed

[theesundayroast]

1 minute ago, Isambard said:

The Regrettes have a guy in their band so what does that count as  ??  male / female / mixed

I know the poster we've seen about contains any act with even one member identifying as female or non binary (that's how I saw it explained)

If you only counted acts with a female lead there would be even fewer.

[NerdsNatterings]

1 minute ago, eFestivals said:

and they are, but in a different way.

https://www.festivalrepublic.com/news/were-proud-announce-our-new-project-rebalance

They could probably do more, but they're not doing nothing.

To be fair I didn't know about it, that scheme does sound like a really good way of addressing issues. Definitely a step in the right direction, I just hope that the final line-up reflects that.

[Isambard]

10 minutes ago, theesundayroast said:

I know the poster we've seen about contains any act with even one member identifying as female or non binary (that's how I saw it explained)

If you only counted acts with a female lead there would be even fewer.

So 80% of bands are totally male and the rest have one or more female/non binary.  Wow, that's shocking and makes it totally unreasonable to expect 50% of the acts to come from the 20%.  This is a long term goal not an imminent one.

[R Shah]

Do people think Fontaines will clash with Gerry? Would quite like to be at front for Liam and at least end of Gerry with all my mates, but Fontaines are prob my fave act on the lineup aha

[rivalschools.price]

28 minutes ago, theesundayroast said:

I know the poster we've seen about contains any act with even one member identifying as female or non binary (that's how I saw it explained)

If you only counted acts with a female lead there would be even fewer.

Why does everyone concentrate on female led bands rather than female musicians in a band?

Surely it’s just as hard to learn an instrument but for some reason many don’t want to count female musicians unless they are fronting the band?

It must be soul destroying for some females who bust their arses learning the guitar or whatever to find that many don’t count them when they are adding up the female musicians in a festival because they aren’t lead singer.

[TornShaun]

1 minute ago, rivalschools.price said:

Why does everyone concentrate on female led bands rather than female musicians in a band?

Surely it’s just as hard to learn an instrument but for some reason many don’t want to count female musicians unless they are fronting the band?

It must be soul destroying for some females who bust their arses learning the guitar or whatever to find that many don’t count them when they are adding up the female musicians in a festival because they aren’t lead singer.

That female bassist for 'P!ATD' was amazing! She slayed that bass better than some of the male bassists! (my fav instrument btw)

[CG31]

1 minute ago, TornShaun said:

That female bassist for 'P!ATD' was amazing! She slayed that bass better than some of the male bassists! (my fav instrument btw)

Honestly and her backing vocals go so well with Brendons as well

[Isambard]

3 minutes ago, TornShaun said:

That female bassist for 'P!ATD' was amazing! She slayed that bass better than some of the male bassists! (my fav instrument btw)

One of Adam Ants drummers is female and the other male - they are equally amazing

 

[NerdsNatterings]

2 minutes ago, TornShaun said:

That female bassist for 'P!ATD' was amazing! She slayed that bass better than some of the male bassists! (my fav instrument btw)

 

Just now, Gerard the Fab said:

Honestly and her backing vocals go so well with Brendons as well

Ran out of reactions but yes to this. She's brilliant!.

 

5 minutes ago, rivalschools.price said:

Why does everyone concentrate on female led bands rather than female musicians in a band?

Surely it’s just as hard to learn an instrument but for some reason many don’t want to count female musicians unless they are fronting the band?

It must be soul destroying for some females who bust their arses learning the guitar or whatever to find that many don’t count them when they are adding up the female musicians in a festival because they aren’t lead singer.

Agree. The thing I would like to see highlighted is how many all female bands there are compared to all male. I can't imagine how small that number is.

[Sgby98]

2 hours ago, Isambard said:

Does any one know in general what percentage of all bands are male / female / mixed ? 

I think you have to take into account women aren't encouraged to become rock stars or bands nearly enough from a younger age and a lot of acts are bands, obviously they need to do better to try and get more but the main problem comes in a lot before the festival's have a big impact, it's a shame but 50/50 would be very hard to achieve right now while keeping a familiar line up 

[sameimpala]

2 hours ago, TornShaun said:

That female bassist for 'P!ATD' was amazing! She slayed that bass better than some of the male bassists! (my fav instrument btw)

fully agree! she was great.

[jamieaslee]

3 hours ago, theesundayroast said:

Have to say I think you have it spot on there.

It's all about the grassroots.

Thank you, I think so.

The other thing is, what if women are given the opportunity to make music but they don't want to/ arent as interested in making music as men?

There must be some data out there that would show whether that's the case.

FR could certainly put some surveys out via their different festivals at least..

If that's the case you could then ask why, learn what the barriers are and maybe it will start to shift, I do think it's a shame there are less women making music. Lots of my favourite artists are women, imagine if there were more!

Edited February 13, 2020 by jamieaslee

[sameimpala]

Really hoping that this £180 a day upgrade doesn't exclude those who aren't upgrading from getting to the front barrier. If that's the case then no chance i'm going. Doubt stormz or rage or even LG would support that shit.

[rivalschools.price]

2 hours ago, TornShaun said:

That female bassist for 'P!ATD' was amazing! She slayed that bass better than some of the male bassists! (my fav instrument btw)

Exactly, yet some wouldn’t consider her efforts as worthy of counting  Patd As one of the bands with female members because they aren’t female fronted. Bizarre way of looking at things

[heartsink]

That poster that’s been flirting about is wrong anyway courteeners and Tom grennan both have female musicians in the band and that’s just of bands I know of haven’t researched the bands on the line up I don’t know 

I do agree though it’s a grass roots problem and does need to be started from the bottom 

[VCK]

Simple fact is that most people who choose to go into alternative/rock type music are white men. Every year there's claims that the Reading and Leeds promoters are misogynistic but looking at it objectively, I really don't think that's the case. Especially if they're giving good slots to the likes of Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa and have at least been trying to promote female pop singers.

Either way though, unless they get female artists that are actually good I don't think it'd really make much difference to the quality of the line up so it doesn't matter.

[sameimpala]

They haven't had a female fronted headliner since Paramore  in 2014 and the last one before that was 1998 with Garbage. 
Very unlikely that there have only been 2 acts considered worthy of headlining in 22 years.

[TornShaun]

6 minutes ago, sameimpala said:

They haven't had a female fronted headliner since Paramore  in 2014 and the last one before that was 1998 with Garbage. 
Very unlikely that there have only been 2 acts considered worthy of headlining in 22 years.

Depends i guess on who was available and who was good at the time?