Forty-five music festivals have signed a pledge to reach a 50/50 gender split for their lineups by 2022.
This initiative was created by the PRS Foundation’s new program, Keychange. Keychange is an international initiative created to address the gender gap in the music industry and as part of this goal, they are trying to encourage as many music festivals as possible to commit to gender-equal lineups.
Some festivals that have signed the pledge as of this writing include the Americas’ A2IM Indie Week and Winter Jazzfest, Canadian Music Week, the Netherlands’ Eurosonic Noorderslag, Iceland Airwaves, the U.K.’s BBC Proms and BBC Music Introducing Stages, and more.
High-profile ambassadors of Keychange include Garbage’s Shirley Manson, producer Tony Visconti and Spanish indie rockers Hinds.
Manson said of Keychange and music’s gender gap in a statement:
I remain utterly outraged by the depressing statistics surrounding female representation in every aspect of the global music business. I am exceedingly grateful to the PRS Foundation for their initiative in trying to put this to rights for we absolutely and urgently MUST put it to rights. We are doing a great disservice, not only to women of all races and socio-economic backgrounds but to all genders, culture and society in general by allowing the status quo to continue. I am proud to support Keychange and everything it is trying to do.
The gender gap in music, specifically in festival lineups, has been discussed in thinkpieces for years now, but it seems like little has been done. Although festivals could theoretically enact these changes immediately, rather than gradually leading up to 2022, at least things appear to be moving in the right direction.
Of course, how nonbinary artists factor into all this is another question entirely.
Find out more about Keychange, including the full list of participating festivals, right here.
