Music festivals still lack female acts, say Green Man musicians

Gillie Rowland, another artist playing this weekend, agreed women needed encouraging to see themselves in the industry – especially in crew and tech roles.

She said she noticed the gender gap when she studied popular music at Goldsmith’s in London: “I was one of two women studying music technology with 10 male students.

“There’s a lot of work to do. What I feel there needs to be more of, not so much putting women on the line-ups, although do that as well.

“We want young women getting into [the industry] so there’s an encouragement from the bottom up.

“So we don’t have to think, ‘that’s a woman, we’ll stick her on the line-up’, obviously great – do that anyway – but I think it has to be a whole upheaval in the way our society has taught women to think about music.”

Dionne Bennett is chairwoman of Ladies of Rage, a Cardiff-based musicians’ collective that champions under-represented women and non-binary artists.

She called the low number of female acts at major festivals “deeply frustrating and indicative of persistent biases in the industry”.

“It’s disheartening to see how slow progress has been in mainstream spaces like festivals, but it also motivates us to keep pushing for change,” she added.

“We are actively working to dismantle these barriers and to create more opportunities for women and marginalised communities to be seen, heard, and celebrated.”