Why Girls I Rate and Strawberries & Creem Festival Are Joining Forces to Champion Equality

Festivals and the live music industry, in general, are repeat offenders in snubbing female artists. More than once this year alone, we have been exposed to the efforts to side-line the pivotal role women assert in a male-dominated industry. This piece alone was influenced by the shock line-up made byother popular festivals this year, despite the success of female artists. The word shock is most definitely being used loosely because the overshadowing of female talent has always been at the forefront of the journey, subconsciously or not. So far this year women have dominated the scene, with award shows like The Brits and The Grammy’s 2021 showcasing the acclaimed and historic stance female artists have made this year alone. It is safe to say that the Wireless line-up caused outrage across social media, with singer-songwriter, Mahalia calling out the festival for being overly catered to male acts.

Even though there are many instances of female artists breaking glass ceilings it is always disappointing when this is not being translated in all sectors of the music industry. The UK live music sector is worth almost £1 billion according to UK Music by Numbers, illustrating the importance of women being equally represented in a billion-pound industry. Heading overseas to the USA the facts remain the same with all-male acts making up around 65% of major US festivals.

There are little things that make a big difference, for example, festival line-up posters show who matters in music right now, you pay most attention to the headlining. The act with the bigger font on a poster, more than the smaller, more grouped names, and rarely has there been a female headline in big, bold, shiny letters on a poster. They depict a catalogue of what to listen to right now, who to spend money on and engage with, it is a resounding reminder of one of music’s biggest problems: a continued lack of gender equity on festival billings and elsewhere.

According to a 2018 survey, it found that women make-up only 19 percent of the average line-up. The Twitter account Book More Women highlights this disparity by editing out the male artists on promotional posters, revealing the small number of women playing the festival.

Wireless 2021 has only seven female acts.

Courtesy of Book More Women

However, amidst all the negatives there has been a silver lining, with many in the business taking initiative in transforming a more inclusive live music industry. One of these being the non-profit organisation, Girls I Rate, founded by Grammy award-winning songwriter, Carla Marie Williams (credits: Beyonce, SeanPaul, Britney Spears.) The organisation was founded due to the first-hand experience of inequality experienced by Carla and has since made it her mission to pioneer female voices throughout the industry.

Speaking to New Wave, Carla describes the struggle of initially pushing the idea of female equality and more than often being labelled as a “suffragette” or angry feminist.

“It was a struggle for the first 5 years of GIR, people just thought I was a crazy suffragette. I had one guy say to ‘sit on my lap and tell me all about GIR’. It is an education and we are still getting there. People don’t like to conform. They like how things are, change is always going to be a lot more difficult especially for men. I think it would be un-PC for people to say it is not important in 2021.”

Sometimes there is a sense of comfortability with how many industries worldwide choose to operate, you could argue that choosing to accept certain mannerisms is easier than fighting and moving forward. However, there is a sense, with all that has happened this past year and a half, that we, especially women, are becoming less scared of using our voice and changing how things work for us. The entertainment industry is a guilty space for sometimes stereotyping the change that many women are trying to achieve as aggressive or anti-men, allowing the industry to go for what is directly in front of them. Carla describes the industry as “still pretty much a boys club. They will just be putting on their friends’ artists, which are usually men who have other male friends in the industry.”

That is where the Girls I Rate 50:50 pledge comes in. A pledge with the idea of “cultivating international activity & opportunities, facilitating 50:50 gender balance and diversity across the music and entertainment industry, as well as safe spaces and educational programmes for women.” As well as supporting the objectives of Keychange, a program supported by Creative Europe to support women and gender minorities in the industry. GIR plans to accumulate signatures from a variety of industry organisations and personnel – including festivals, radio stations, publications, and brands. All signatures collected by GIR and Keychange will be compared in 2024 to show a palpable and hopeful change across the industry.

The first festival to sign the pledge was Strawberries and Creem Festival (18-19th September), founded by Preye Crooks and Chris Jammer. The pair began their journey in the live music industry with the idea of diversifying the music consumed in their University town of Cambridge.

This saw the pair running and promoting four highly successful club nights a week and therefore venturing into something bigger, a festival, now recognised as S+C. So, the idea of sharing new sounds to a wider range of audience is something always being pioneered by Preye and Chris, and their work with GIR and Carla was a unity always bound to have happened.

Speaking to New Wave, Preye and Chris describe that their values “really align with GIR that we spoke to Carla and asked her to help her get us on the 50:50 pledge”. And signing the pledge was a perfect addition but it did not matter whether attendees knew or not the work they were doing behind the scenes and have always attracted an equal amount of all genders. Preye says “when you look at the 2019 line-up, we did have a significant number of women attending our event. I think it was something like 70% women that year and it has carried on to this year. so maybe women appreciate it more than it is spoken about.”

Even though the future is seemingly hopeful for women in the music industry there is still so much that could be done, with Preye adding “I think it is really just a case of booking women. There is no excuse now, there has been enough backlash for them not to do it anymore. And it is also a case of committing to something like the GIR and key change pledge. Having that stability is important.”

It is vital that we also realise this is not a fight between any gender but something that must be pioneered by all states Carla, “Men must be pioneering diversity and equality. Without them, it is only one-sided. We need both sides to create change and get everyone working together. What I love about what S+C have done is they signed our pledge, created the 50:50 balance and they also put GIR DJs on a one-hour set dedicated to women in music.” Girls I Rate are also doing more in getting women in the industry by “looking to create more safe spaces for women, so getting female music engineers to the forefront, we have teamed up with ICMP to give courses to women. So yeah, everything is moving forward nicely” says Carla.

If you want to help or sign up to the 50:50 pledge, you can do so here and don't forget to buy tickets for Strawberries and Cream here!