There’s something about this line-up… (Picture: Getty)

The line-up for 2020’s edition of Reading and Leeds Festival has been announced, and there’s no denying it’s quite impressive.

After a nine-year hiatus, Rage Against The Machine will be headlining, alongside Liam Gallagher and, a year on from his groundbreaking Glastonbury performance, Stormzy.

Big names like Run The Jewels, Migos and Two Door Cinema Club are also on the bill alongside some of music’s most exciting new acts, like IDLES, Fontaines DC and Slowthai.

But as great as the line-up is, there’s a major issue.


Out of 92 names on the first Reading and Leeds poster, just 20 are women.



On the main stage, the only female artists among the 18 acts are Mabel, Lady Leshurr and Bloxx frontwoman Ophelia Booth. Meanwhile, on the BBC Radio 1 stage, there’s 20 acts – but just four are women. Hannah Wants is the sole female amongst the nine names for the dance stage, while across The Pit and The Lock-Up, which boasts 16 acts, there’s just two women – Ashnikko and Creeper keyboardist Hannah Greenwood. Oh, and the 17-act strong BBC Radio 1Xtra stage is also host to just three women.

It’s the Festival Republic stage where women are best represented, with over half of the line-up being female so far.

But across the whole festival? With just 20 acts featuring women (with three of those mixed bands), that means that only 21 per cent of the line-up is made up of female artists. Considering the UK is made up of 51 per cent women… you can see this is a bit messed up.

Maybe there’ll be more women in the next wave of acts, but it doesn’t look good.

This isn’t new territory for Reading and Leeds, or just a slip-up for 2020. The festival is consistently male-dominated. Maybe they could be excused for that when they solely booked rock acts, a very male-dominated industry when it comes to the most bankable performers. But this year, Reading and Leeds is an exciting and equal mix of rock, indie, pop, rap, grime and dance… just not of genders.

In 2015, Festival Republic’s Melvin Benn, who organises Reading and Leeds, told Gigwise: ‘This idea that female bands are sidelined as a suggestion is just not there. The truth is that there has been a historic lack of opportunity for young women to get into bands, and to be in bands, and I think that’s disappeared now.

Mabel is one of three women on the main stage (Picture: Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

‘I don’t think there’s any young women thinking of joining a band now that think, “There’s no point, because I’m going to be sidelined”. I don’t think sidelining exists, but there was certainly lack of opportunity. But there’s an abundance of opportunity now. The truth is it will just get stronger and stronger, it will grow and grow the amount of female bands that are there.’



He added that the days of a band being four guys were ‘genuinely gone’. That year, Reading and Leeds had just 10 women across their line-up.

So sure, five years on, they’ve technically increased female representation on their bill. But an increase of 10 women across a line-up of close to 100 names is laughable.

When festivals are criticised year after year for not including enough women, yet continue not to do anything about it, it’s obvious that they don’t care about equality and representation. You cannot claim to support female artists if you’re not booking them, and Reading and Leeds is proving just that.

Nobody can argue anymore that the pool of female artists to choose from is too small. Aside from the amazing women that did make it onto the line-up, I can easily rattle off streams of women that would slay the Reading and Leeds stage – Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Lizzo, Hayley Williams, Maggie Rogers, Kacey Musgraves, Haim, Sigrid, Jorja Smith, Lana Del Rey, SZA, Rosalia, Janelle Monae, Charli XCX, Nicki Minaj, Little Simz… That’s before you get to the up and coming talent at a booker’s fingertips.

Many festivals have proved that gender equality on bills can be done. Last year, Primavera staged a 50/50 split on its line-up, calling it the ‘new normal’. Native festival in Kent, Loud Women Fest in north London and Boudica festival in Coventry boasted all-female line-ups, while Cro Cro Land also had an equal split.

The more Reading and Leeds dig their heels in and come up with tired excuses, they more they paint themselves as a tired relic of music gone by. In fairness to Reading and Leeds, ethnic diversity on this line-up is great (and long may it continue) and sure, the array of acts in terms of music is great – but ticket-buyers are starting to get fed up with the lack of diversity in all areas, and they’ll start talking with their money. And hopefully, the male acts dominating the conversation will start to speak up too. Just as Hollywood stars began to call for ‘inclusion riders’ to ensure that women and minorities to be represented on set, we need everybody in the music industry to ensure there’s a level playing field.


If not, festivals like Reading and Leeds will continue to let women down.

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