GRAMMY-nominated singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile is making sure women artists know they deserve not only to be festival acts, but headliners.
Save the date! @brandiweekend is something I’m really proud of. These past few years I’ve really been noticing the exclusion of women at the top of mainstream festival lineups.
This is a weekend holiday in Mexico celebrating women in rock and roll. brandicarlile.com/more-news/2018…
According to Pitchfork, women made up 19 percent of some of the country's biggest music festival bills in 2018. Earlier this year, GRAMMY winner Beyoncé was just the third female solo artist ever to headline Coachella since its first date in 1999 and the first woman of color ever to do so. GRAMMY winner Janet Jackson was set to headline Los Angeles' FYF Festuntil its cancellation not so long before it was set to happen.
Tired of seeing the lack of female representation, Carlile has taken matters into her own hands by organizing a destination festival called Girls Just Wanna in Mexico Jan. 30- Feb. 3 at the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya, 2019. The fest will feature her and GRAMMY winners Maren Morris, Indigo Girls and Patty Griffin. Also on the lineup GRAMMY-nominated artists KT Tunstall, the Secret Sisters, as well as Margo Price, Lucius and Ruby Amanfu.
"These past few years I've been really noticing the exclusion of women at the top of mainstream festival lineups," she said on her website. "This is a weekend holiday in Mexico celebrating women in rock and roll."
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the singer said the gender gap in music festival headlining is actually getting worse.
"Festival buyers and people booking festivals are missing the truck because what I hope Girls Just Wanna Weekend will show is that there are women [fans] who are staying home, whose money spends the same as their male counterparts, because the top of that festival is all men and it’s not calling to them because they don’t feel represented musically," she said.
Carlile continued by touching on the kind of environment women can encounter at music festivals.
"They’re worried about toxic masculinity, being hit on and surrounded by drunk guys," s said. "Look, [drinking] is part of festival life. But if there were two or three women in those spots, they would know they are represented."
But why take the festival outside of the U.S.? Carlile has had a lot of fun leaving her home in Seattle during the winter to be a part of the Cayamo cruise music festival, which voyages to the Caribbean and Mexico, she explained on her website. "Beautiful musical chaos ensues," she wrote.
Carlile wanted to have the same spirit at her festival. Tickets and other information for Girls Just Wanna will be available for presale July 31 via the festival's website.
