GEMINI ZINE - ISSUE #1

Above: on the left, the Reading and Leeds 2020 lineup; on the right, the same lineup with only
non-male acts. Edit: Indie is not a genre.
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which no doubt injured this once £2.6
billion industry, festivals may be less
inclined to take the leap of faith into
more non-male acts, and instead grab
for the money-making (male) artists.
Meanwhile, independent festivals
such as End of The Road have already
met and even surpassed a 50/50 gender
balance in their lineups. This balance
can be explained by more creative
control over the event itself, and
the ability to curate festival bills based
on what they want, rather than what
will make the largest profit. Lara
Baker, former Marketing and Events
Director at the Association of Independent
Music, encourages festivalgoers
to “vote with [their] wallet and
get a ticket to a more diverse indie festival”
instead of the big names, in order
to show the demand for minority
genders in the headline slots.
The Keychange initiative seems our
most promising shot regarding festival
diversity, but it comes with its
own disadvantages for the industry’s
ecosystem. Making quotas for diversity
may lead to tokenism: a way of
“ticking boxes” without actually nurturing
gender minorities. This is the
case for Reading and Leeds. Although
2021’s initial lineup show two fifths of
acts are women, they bunch in the
‘also appearing’ section, far below the
headlines. Whilst this is much better
than even ten years ago, it risks perpetuating
the idea that non-males are
still just not up to the task of headlining.
We must not overlook the context of
Reading and Leeds as a rite-of-passage
festival after GCSE and A-Level re-
“
Tokenism:
a way of ‘ticking boxes’
without actually nurturing
gender minorities. This is
the case for Reading and
Leeds