Mike Windle via Getty Images Music Festivals’ Glaring Woman Problem Half of music festival attendees are women. But on stage, the numbers tell a different story.

Story by Alanna Vagianos

Graphics by Alissa Scheller Wednesday, May 25, 2016, 1:00 PM EDT

It’s 2011 and I’m on a plane to Miami. I’m ready to soak up some sun and kick back at my sister’s apartment in South Beach. As an afterthought, I’ve agreed to go to one of the largest electronic music festivals in the world, Ultra, for the first time.

As I skim through the lineup — which included big names like Tiesto, Deadmau5 and David Guetta — I think to myself: Where are all the women?

I was about to fall deeply, madly in love with electronic music and the whole festival scene. But out of the dozens of festivals I went to after that first one, I never stopped asking the same question: Where are all the women?

HOW BAD IS THE GENDER BREAKDOWN, REALLY? Move the sliders to pick what percentage you think each group makes up for all the 2016 festivals we looked at. Move theto pick what percentage you think each group makes up for all the 2016 festivals we looked at. 20% 60% 80% 100% Acts with only men Acts with only women Mixed-gender groups 40% 0% 21% 74% 5% YOUR GUESS YOUR GUESS Your selection adds up to 0%. Get it close to 100%. Use the — guides to get there. Your selection is close to 100%. Are you ready to see the what we actually found? SHOW ANSWERS THE REALITY For the 10 festivals we looked at, women artists (single performers or all-women groups) made up only 12 percent of acts in 2016 — compared to 78 percent male performers (single or all-male groups). Your guess is marked in — pink. Source: HuffPost analysis of festival lineups. Read our methodology.

Thirty-two million people attend music festivals every year in the U.S. Over half (51 percent) of those attendees are women. But on stage, the demographics are very different.

Coachella’s 2016 lineup included 168 male artists and just 60 female artists — a figure that includes both all-female and mixed-gender acts. Ultra’s 2016 lineup only featured 20 female artists, while a whopping 198 exclusively-male acts made up the rest of the weekend. Lollapalooza tapped 124 male acts to perform at its 2016 festival, and only 47 female acts. That’s a pretty dismal imbalance — and, unfortunately, that gender disparity isn’t anything new.

The lack of women artists at music festivals has been discussed… a lot. But where’s the real disconnect? How many female acts really are at these festivals — and has that number changed over time? And if women are dominating the music industry, why don’t we see it reflected in festival lineups?

To investigate these questions, The Huffington Post looked at the lineups from ten different music festivals — Bonnaroo, Coachella, Outside Lands, Lollapalooza, Electric Forest, Electric Zoo, Hangout, Governor’s Ball, Firefly and Ultra — from the past five years. Festivals like Ultra and Electric Forest are dominated by electronic dance music (EDM), while others like Bonnaroo, Coachella and Outside Lands offer a more diverse range of musical genres, including rock, rap, EDM and R&B.

From the 50 lineups we looked at, we broke down the percentages of all-male acts, all-female acts and mixed-gender acts in each festival’s lineups from 2012 to 2016. This left us with ten festivals and almost 6,000 performers over five years. In all ten cases, we found a startlingly large gender gap — and one that has stayed fairly steady over the past five years.

Some festivals have more female performers this year than they have in the past. But not a single one is even close to acheiving gender parity in its lineup. Acts with only men Acts with only women Mixed-gender groups BONNAROO COACHELLA ELECTRIC FOREST ELECTRIC ZOO FIREFLY 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2012 2016 2012 2016 2012 2016 2012 2012 2016 2016 GOVERNORS BALL HANGOUT LOLLAPALOOZA OUTSIDE LANDS ULTRA 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2012 2016 2012 2016 2012 2016 2012 2012 2016 2016 Source: HuffPost analysis of festival lineups. Note: For fewer than 1 percent of the acts in festival lineups in the last five years, we could not determine the gender breakdown, and those acts are not included in these charts. Read our methodology.

Some festivals have more female performers this year than they have in the past. But not a single one is even close to acheiving gender parity in its lineup. Acts with only men Acts with only women Mixed-gender groups BONNAROO 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2012 2016 COACHELLA 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2012 2016 ELECTRIC FOREST 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2012 2016 ELECTRIC ZOO 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2012 2016 FIREFLY 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2012 2016 GOVERNORS BALL 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2012 2016 HANGOUT 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2012 2016 LOLLAPALOOZA 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2012 2016 OUTSIDE LANDS 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2012 2016 ULTRA 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2012 2016 Source: HuffPost analysis of festival lineups. Note: For fewer than 1 percent of the acts in festival lineups in the last five years, we could not determine the gender breakdown, and those acts are not included in these charts. Read our methodology.

Across the board, all-male acts make up the overwhelming majority of festival lineups, ranging from 66 percent of all performers (Outside Lands and Governors Ball) to 93 percent (Electric Zoo).

Since 2012, the percentage of all-female acts at these festivals has increased slightly. Ultra is the only festival where there has been zero increase in women performers, with all-female acts plateauing at a solid 6 percent.

Mixed-gender acts fare a bit better than all-female ones — though not by much. Over the past five years, mixed-gender acts made up a higher average percentage of festival performers than the all-female acts in all nine festivals other than Ultra, and (just in the past two years) Coachella and Outside Lands. One explanation for Ultra having a higher percentage of all-female acts (6 percent) than mixed-gender groups (3 percent) is that most acts are DJs — meaning there are fewer group acts overall at Ultra than other festivals.

One thing that stood out in our analysis was that EDM-centered festivals (Ultra, Electric Forest and Electric Zoo) have a larger gender imbalance than more mainstream festivals. Ultra had 90 percent all-male acts over the past five years and Electric Forest had 85 percent. More mainstream festivals like Firefly and Lollapalooza still had a large gender imbalance, but the gap was smaller. Both festivals had 72 percent all-male acts over the past five years.

Or, share the gender breakdown of other 2016 festivals.

SO, WHY IS IT LIKE THIS?

Women make up half of music festival attendees — and therefore, make these festivals a ton of money — so why aren’t the festivals catering their acts to female attendees?

The root of the disconnect between the number of women on stage and the number of women in the crowd may lie partially in the male-dominated subcultures these festivals were founded out of, as Slate writer Forrest Wickman argued in 2013:

“The real problem at most of these festivals lies in the alternative subcultures they celebrate. Formed out of the male-dominated music scenes of jam music (in the case of Bonnaroo), late-’90s indie rock (Coachella), and early ’90s alternative and grunge (Lollapalooza), these festivals tend to celebrate diversity while dismissing the most popular pop acts — the ones who tend to dominate the charts and who tend so often to be female — as frivolous or corporate.”

This holds up especially true for electronic dance music festivals. EDM is notorious for being one of music’s largest boy’s club, with women making up just 11 percent of artists at electronic music festivals in 2015. And in 2014, just 18 percent of EDM labels included women on their rosters.

“If you Google ‘female DJ,’ there’s not a lot of reputable female producers that come up,” Miriam Nervo of electronic group NERVO told The Huffington Post. “You just get a lot of girls in bikinis with headphones on. If you Google 'male DJ’ you don't see the guys with their tops off. I think that’s been a real stigma for women in electronic music.”

Jahan Yousaf, of the electronic DJ duo Krewella, thinks that EDM’s gender disparity is also exacerbated by stereotypes about women’s technical capabilities.

“I think many young women are hesitant to pursue a career as producers or DJs because of existing assumptions about women lacking technical abilities,” Yousaf said. “In the pop world the fandom can be attributed to the songwriting, performance style, vocal style. But in the dance world, the fandom is attributed to the production or someone’s ability to DJ.”

Emma Olson, a NYC-based DJ by the name UMFANG, told HuffPost that growing up in the EDM industry, she was conditioned to believe she wasn’t good at the technical side of DJing simply because she’s a woman.

“We are culturally brought up to think that women will always play softer and prettier music and they’re not necessarily as technically talented,” Olson said. “I really thought that using synthesizers was harder for me, I thought that programming was harder for me because I’m a woman.”

Yousaf added that EDM festivals have such a large gender imbalance in part because the majority of the people creating music in the industry are men. “Part of the reason for the skewed ratio is that most producers and engineers are men in this scene,” she said. “It's just the reality.”

Pasquale Rotella, CEO of Insomniac events — which puts on big-name EDM festivals like Electric Daisy Carnival — agreed with Yousaf, telling HuffPost that there’s simply more men on the production side of EDM.

“There are a lot of female agents, managers and publicists in the industry but most of them are pushing male artists,” he said. “Men aren't any better than women when it comes to production and DJing. There are just so many more men out there in the field.”

Gender, however, isn’t a factor when curating lineups, Rotella said: “We don’t book our festivals based on gender; it’s all about good music, but that music needs to make its way to us.”

“I really thought that using synthesizers was harder for me, I thought that programming was harder for me because I’m a woman. I had just been conditioned to think I simply couldn’t do it.” —Emma Olson (DJ UMFANG)

Plus, creating a festival lineup takes a lot of time — anywhere from one to two years. Executive Vice President of Programming for Superfly (the production company behind Bonnaroo) Chris Sampson told HuffPost that headliners are sometimes even booked a few years in advance.

“We're very aware of the gender imbalance,” Sampson said. “We try to book the best festival that we can every year. We want the best artists out there, at every level, male or female.”

The brains behind the Bonnaroo lineup are made up of a small, diverse group of four to six people, Sampson said. Two of the people on the committee are women.

Allen Scott — Executive Vice President of Another Planet Entertainment, which co-produces Outside Lands festival — echoed Sampson’s sentiments about the time and care put into lineup curation. “For Outside Lands we have a small committee that discusses options and kind of bat ideas around,” Scott said. “We start with headliners first because those are the most difficult to book and then we build from there. If you’re going to have Radiohead headlining, you’re going to build your day differently than if you have Elton John or Kanye West as your headliners.”

So why are there no women at the top? Scott said much of it has to do with scheduling.

“I think it’s reflective of touring artists as a whole,” he said, adding that timing has a lot to do with who we see headlining festivals. If popular female artists aren’t touring during festival season, it’s much harder to book them.

Shirley Halperin, Billboard News Director and music editor at The Hollywood Reporter, agreed with Scott that much of what we see in lineups is a result of scheduling issues.

“I think it’s dependent on who happens to be touring this summer — not that it’s an intentional or subconscious slight to female acts,” Halperin told HuffPost. “The live music industry is cyclical and tours are often booked around release dates or other major events, so in a way, it comes down to who is available during a certain festival season.”

Aside from scheduling, sometimes it simply comes down to money. “An artist's fee might not always align with our budget,” Sampson said. “If you look at the top female headliners that are out there right now — whether it's Beyoncé or Rihanna or Adele or Taylor Swift — just because they're out there doesn't mean that we can have them at the festival.”

Although women do dominate music, it tends to be pop music — which is not the musical genre most festivals are centered around. “The major music festivals don’t book a lot of pop music,” Scott said. “A lot of these pop artists like Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift are not necessarily who’s being booked at festivals because those artists’ audiences tend to be younger and not necessarily festival go-ers yet.”

But aren’t many of the big female headliners — Lana Del Rey, Florence and The Machine, Ellie Goulding, Halsey — considered pop artists?

“A Lana Del Rey or a Lorde have a little more of an alternative perception in terms of audience than maybe a Taylor Swift, who has a lot of young fans going to her concerts with their parents,” Scott told HuffPost. “I think that the Lana Del Rey and Lorde listener may be a little bit more experimental and listen to like a Glass House or a Kendrick Lamar or a Tame Impala, whereas Taylor Swift fan in general — or at least her core audience — may be much more pop-oriented.”

Halperin added that some big female pop stars don’t perform at festivals because they want to be the main act — not just part of a lineup.

“I think certain female artists, like a Beyoncé or Adele, opt to put on their own arena tours instead of playing festivals for business reasons, and also to brand themselves as the main event,” Halperin told HuffPost. “With festivals, the ‘name’ is the event itself, headliners and even highly billed acts sometimes get lost in the mass of acts playing.”

But there are a lot of successful female artists that don’t fall under the pop genre. And while we do see some big names towards the top of set lists — M.I.A., Elle King, HAIM, Ellie Goulding — the list of female artists that make it onto lineups seem to be a small pool of the same people.

“I did a festival once where I got paid significantly less than the guy who went on before me. It was ridiculous. The pay gap is a huge issue.” —Angel Haze (rapper)

Twenty-three-year-old rapper Angel Haze — known for her remake of Eminem’s “Cleaning Out My Closet” — has performed around the world at festivals such as Lollapalooza, Coachella and Glastonbury. (Haze, who identifies as agender, told The Huffington Post she prefers to use the pronouns she/her.)

“I did a festival once where I got paid significantly less than the guy who went on before me. It was ridiculous. The pay gap is a huge issue.” Haze said. “Women make way less — like significantly less — and are treated way worse than men at any festival I've ever been to.”

She added that she’s experienced a lot of subtle sexism at festivals that forces women to work twice as hard as their male counterparts. “They want women to work harder in order to be accepted and recognized for their talents,” Haze said. “I think it's whack that you have to go the extra mile when you're a girl. Even when you're far better than the opposition. Festivals are weak like that.”

SO NOW WHAT?

So what’s the solution? It’s not so clear cut. At the end of the day, there’s no one person wagging his finger saying, “I don’t want women in my music festival lineups!” Like many issues of structural sexism, music festivals’ gender imbalance is a complex one.

Part of it comes down to the simple fact that there are more men in the music industry. In a male-dominated business, it’s inevitably going to be harder for women to break through at every stage — whether that’s the all-female indie band playing gigs in a bar or the PR girl who can’t seem to make it up the chain of command to become a CEO or EVP.

And sometimes gender simply isn’t a factor that comes up in the decision-making process. Programmers like Bonnaroo’s Sampson and Outside Lands’ Scott choose artists by their sound and the mood they’re looking to set. "Tame Impala is an incredible band,” Sampson told HuffPost. “We know that Tame Impala playing late-night on the second [Bonnaroo] stage would be so incredible. It didn't matter if Tame Impala was led by five women or five men, we knew that we wanted that style of music and that band on at that time."

Ultimately, the problem with getting more female-led acts onto festival stages is the same problem all industries face in trying to make women more visible players: Sexism is systemic and often subtle. And more often than not, you can’t solve a systemic issue from the top down.

As Angel Haze put it: “If women were praised more for their music, for their talent, for anything other than what the fuck they look like — a lot of things in the world would be different.”

Going to a festival this year? Share its 2016 gender breakdown. Bonnaroo

Coachella

Electric Forest

Electric Zoo

Firefly

Governors Ball

Hangout

Lollapalooza

Outside Lands

Ultra

Additional contributions by Hilary Fung, Emma Gray, Adam Hooper and Shane Shifflett.