GEMINI ZINE - ISSUE #1

T
STILL A MAN’S WORLD?
Headliners, Keychange, and the Problem with
Reading and Leeds
he date is 11 th February 2020. A
certain life-altering pandemic has yet
to bludgeon its way through Britain –
Boris hasn’t even told us to wash our
hands to Happy Birthday yet – and for
most, it’s just a cold Tuesday morning.
Reading and Leeds Festival announce
their initial 2020 lineup. Outrage
ensues.
Edits on Twitter show the light dusting
of non-male acts, usually
gathering at the bottom
of sections – an afterthought
and an accessory
under the punchy logos of
male artists – and stuffed
there haphazardly, so to not
cause a media stir. But it
does. Many in the industry
call out this pattern of inequality,
including Annie
Mac, Maggie Rogers and
Matty Healy – the latter of which headlined
last year, and now pledges to sign
only onto festivals
with a
50/50 split of
acts.
“
The concern has
shifted across
the festival’s
legacy from one
of inclusivity to
one of equity
”
This is not new
behaviour
from R&L.
Since the start
of the millennium,
an average
of 3 acts
featuring female musicians have reached
the main stage, compared to about 29
main stage acts overall. Crunching the
numbers, I found the highest value in
2017, where 6 out of 27 main stage acts
featured women (and after going through
hundreds of Wikipedia pages of all-male
artists, I considered this a victory). Still,
in 2020, it is most common to see only
two or three acts featuring women on the
main stage lineup, and occurrences
where there are none at all.
This number becomes
smaller in trying to find
queer, non-binary and trans
folk, even beyond the main
stage.
Fast forward six months,
and Reading and Leeds
bravely announce their return
in 2021 with 20 confirmed
acts and 6 headliners.
One would hope that lockdown has
given them some time to soul-search. The
ratio has improved significantly, with
eight of the 20 announced acts featuring
women – but this doesn’t stop the onslaught
of complaints on Twitter. Mister
R&L is probably whining, ‘Why are you
booing me? I gave you eight women!’ But
the concern has shifted across the festival’s
legacy from one of inclusivity to one
of equity. There is a seat at the table for
these artists, but it’s a low stool with wobbling
legs. Three quarters of these acts
have been delegated to the “also perform-
6
Laura Jane Grace performing on the main stage of
Reading and Leeds festival in 2015. Photo: DIY Mag.