Over 45 music festivals band together to fight gender inequality
Over 45 music festivals from around the world have banded together to tackle gender inequality by pledging to achieve and maintain “a 50/50 gender balance across their festivals by 2022,” including live line-ups and conference participants.
The PRS Foundation's Keychange has recruited festivals like Liverpool Sound City, NYC Winter Jazzfest, Norway's Borealis, Canada's North by North East, UK's BBC Proms and dozens more to take part in the initiative.
Additionally, Garbage's Shirley Manson, David Bowie producer Tony Visconti, Imogen Heap and Glastonbury organizer Emily Eaves are among the ambassadors who will help further Keychange's gender balance goals.
“I remain utterly outraged by the depressing statistics surrounding female representation in every aspect of the global music business,” Manson said in a statement. “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.”
According to the PRS Foundation, Keychange is “a pioneering international initiative supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union which is empowering women to transform the future of the music industry and encouraging industry conferences and festivals to achieve or maintain a 50:50 balance by 2022. By bringing together like-minded festivals and conference programmers committed to positive action, Keychange aims to create much needed long-term change in live music and beyond.”
Prominent music fests like Iceland's Airwaves, Sweden's Way Out West and the U.K.'s The Great Escape have previously also aligned with Keychange.
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