It is an industry full of female talent, and yet the stages of UK music festivals appear to be lacking their voices. However, one Highland event is setting an example for the rest of the country, according to singer KT Tunstall.
The star took to the main stage at HebCelt Festival on Friday, performing in front of hundreds of music lovers on Lewis.
She is just one of many female artists playing the festival this year and says bosses have been leading the way in representation on stage for some time.
The festival has had more than a 50:50 gender balance for at least five years, and the Scots star stormed the stage with an all-female band.
But the 44-year-old has said that adhering to percentages and ratios is not the way to bring out the vast amount of musical talent the country has to offer.
“I think it’s a more systemic problem than just saying to festival bookers ‘you have to book more than 50 per cent of females’. It needs to be good,” she said.
“You can’t just book something just because it has a girl in it. That’s going to damage your festival.”
Her declaration comes after more than 40 UK festivals promised to have at least half of their acts contain a woman, as part of a campaign launched by KeyChanges to achieve a 50:50 balance by 2022.
“Music festivals are changing enormously, and the female artists exist,
so there are not a lot of excuses for that disparity,” said Tunstall.
“Having said that, it still has to be about quality and curation. You don’t want to put something on that doesn’t make any sense with what you’re doing – and it still needs to be great.”
The Hebridean festival has also signed up to the equality initiative, however, and has seen female acts take to their stage in the same capacity as men for the past several years, but KT says this is not down to any social pressure.
“HebCelt have been absolutely leading the charge,” she said. “I was so proud to be part of that, and be playing at the festival.
“It just feels, maybe with traditional music playing its part as well, that it is as though they are not even trying. They are just booking people they like. And that’s a fabulous example to everyone else.
“I don’t agree with slapping hardline percentages on things. I don’t think that’s very helpful.
“I think it’s extremely important for bookers and promoters to question if they have got a playlist with 10 men on it, or 10 new signings, or looking at booking the summer schedule, and there are hardly any women on it – why? Just why? Is that cool? No. Be cool. Make a bit more effort.”
This year’s line-up saw Tunstall take to the main stage as headliner yesterday, following the previous night of Tide Lines, a four-piece male Scots band who headlined the festival for the first time.
Since launching 24 years ago, the island festival has seen a surge in popularity, from drawing initial crowds of almost 1,000 people to last year seeing more than 18,000 come to Stornoway to celebrate the festival.
And this year, organisers are expecting to break that record, meaning the prominence of quality acts on its stages is even more prevalent.
“The effort needs to be made by everybody to bring those bands and artists to a place where they can headline a festival,” said Tunstall. “You can’t just step out and headline straight away, it takes experience.”
The fight for female representation in the music industry is one the Highland festival holds close to its heart and director Caroline Maclennan said it is more important now than ever.
“Gender equality in music has been a major talking point for some years,” said Ms Maclennan. “It is important to support musicians whatever their gender and allow clear career pathways for our young talent to come through.”
Tunstall said she was glad the tide was changing. “I think a lot of it is to do with awareness,” she said. “People are used to it being all guys and they’re not even thinking about it. Once you look at it, you’ll see it is completely skewed. Fifty per cent of the population wants to see itself represented on stage.”
She also talked about redressing the balance of women in rock.
“I realised that I have been moaning about the fact there weren’t enough
female musicians in rock music, because they are absolutely ruling it in rap and hip hop and pop,” said Tunstall. “But for some reason, it seems like a bit of a desert in rock music at the moment. I think the statistic was still something like 19% of acts at festivals that even have a female member.
A recent survey showed women made up just 26% of festival line-ups in 2017 across the UK, and those within the music industry say this is just not good enough.
“Visibility is one of the most important things when it comes to developing, inspiring and nurturing creative talent,” said Halina Rifai of Scottish Women Inventing Music. “If you are consistently exposed to the same thing then
it makes it very hard to feel like there is a place for you in the music industry.
“By not striving to achieve balance when it comes to representation in music and the arts – and this applies to POC [people of colour], LGBTQ+, non-binary
as well as those identifying as women – how are you attracting a new
generation or caring for existing talent?”
“Promoters who book not only for festivals but for gigs locally and nationally could consider diluting male-centric line-ups with other talent.
“This may then give audiences more to discover. It would also inspire people to consider careers going forward.”
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