The summer music festival Primavera Sound has just released its 2019 roster – and the great news is half of the musical acts are women. Solange, Erykah Badu, Princess Nokia, Robyn, Christine and the Queens, Nina Kraviz, Peggy Gou, Courtney Barnett and more will join a host of other artists at the Barcelona festival next Spring.
Primavera Sound announced that the line up represented “The New Normal”. It appears the organisers are making a conscious effort to redress the gender imbalance on music festival lineups. According to a BBC report, a staggering 80 per cent of headlining acts in the UK were all-male last year. In 2017, the London Wireless music festival only had three non-male musicians on a huge bill. Primavera Sound's new mostly femme line up is actively combatting these statistics.
As the festival eloquently sums-up on their website, “if half of our audience is female, why shouldn’t half of our line up be so too?”
While the festival admits they should’ve featured made this shift a while ago, they say they’ve been battling the inertia for many years. However, they do add that the time is now, and “if the future is female, what’s the point in waiting?” And with that sage advice, we don't see the point in waiting any longer for other festivals to play catch-up either. Primavera will take place in Barcelona from May 30 to June 1.
Visit the Primavera Sound website for more information.
