The line-up for this year’s Splendour In The Grass is out and, bluntly, it’s not good. Sure, the headliners are killer, with Flume, The Strokes and Tyler, The Creator, currently reigning dance-music, rock and hip-hop respectively. But, now that the list is out, we’re left to wonder, where on earth are all the women?
Upon scanning the line-up, I’m struggling to find many non-male acts. If we look at the first two lines of each day, out of 17 acts, only 3 are women or have women in their band. Like, are you actually joking? Is it the 70s?
It’s bad enough that Splendour in the Grass don’t have at least one female headliner, but the fact that they have none, and the rest of the headliners are mainly men is astonishing. I truly thought that we were better than the Reading / Leads fiasco, but evidently not.
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Historically, Splendour hasn’t been great when it comes to diversity in their lineups, but it did look like the tide was turning when Lorde headlined in 2018. By nabbing Lorde for a headline slot, Splendour showed great strides in placing faith in not only women headliners, but in pop music as well. But, boy have we backtracked.
The excuse that there aren’t any suitable female headliners isn’t good enough either. There are plenty of internationally-renowned female acts that could have easily taken a headliner slot. Billie Eilish, for example, has been proven to be extremely popular commercially and critically.
Additionally, many thought that Lana Del Rey could have headlined the festival too. After many years of influencing the music industry, she ultimately reached her artistic peak on her latest record, Norman F**king Rockwell. Not to mention, Halsey, Lizzo and Dua Lipa are all women in pop music that would have guaranteed a crowd at Splendour.
If you’re a die-hard Tyler, The Creator fan or you’ve been waiting decades for a Midnight Oil reunion and you’re definitely going to go, then definitely make sure you support the non-male acts too.
Make sure you go and see the infectious pop coming out of G Flip and Benee, the moving alternative music coming out of Stella Donnelly and Julia Jacklin, and the dance-floor ready anthems coming out of Thelma Plum. Showing support for these artists will ultimately show Splendour that there is a demand for female acts at these big festivals.
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