Why are only 17% of UK’s top festival headliners female in 2023?

Published

2 years ago

April 21, 2023

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Only 17% of headliners at the UK’s top festivals this year are female, Sky News analysis has found.

Women are seen as too much of a “risk” for the top slots because of a perception festivalgoers prefer watching men, as well as the pool of female talent still being too small, music industry experts say.

Industry figures also called on Glastonbury to do more to bridge the gender divide.

Across 104 festivals this summer, only a fifth (20%) of headline acts are fronted by women, compared with almost four-fifths (78%) by men and 2% by non-binary people.

At the biggest festivals, with over 30,000 capacity, this is even lower for women at one in six (17%).

And if you count the total number of performers on stage during headline slots, only one in 10 (11%) are women.

According to our research, while women are still behind men across the board, they are more popular with fans on YouTube, Google and the radio, than they are with festival promoters when booking headliners.

Meanwhile, the likes of Glastonbury, Isle of Wight Festival and Latitude don’t have a single female-fronted headliner on their main stages this year.

Glastonbury, which is releasing its final 2023 tickets, faced a backlash in March after it revealed the Arctic Monkeys, Guns n Roses and Sir Elton John will headline its famous Pyramid Stage this year.

Folk rocker, Cat Stevens, is also booked for the Sunday afternoon “legends” slot despite rumours Blondie was due to take it.

Organiser Emily Eavis said the female headliner they had planned, widely rumoured to be Taylor Swift, had to pull out due to a tour clash.

Women ‘too much of a risk’

Eve Horne is a producer, singer-songwriter and founder of Peak Music UK, which mentors female and non-binary artists and producers. She is also on UK Music’s Diversity Taskforce and is a board member of Moving The Needle, which works to improve female inclusion in the industry.

She says there was hope that the devastating impact of COVID would make industry bosses prioritise inclusion and diversity.

“If anything it did a 360 and went backwards,” she tells Sky News.

“Everyone started going for the money again and saying there’s too much risk in putting women as headliners.”

Eve claims promoters repeatedly tell her that festivalgoers of all genders prefer watching men perform more than women.

“It’s about money at the end of the day and we still have old white men gatekeeping the industry,” she adds.

John Rostron, chief executive of the Association of Independent Festivals, which represents 105 UK events, says the problem stems from there being a smaller pool of female artists for promoters to pick from.

“A headline slot might be the pinnacle of an artist’s live career.

“There are plenty of barriers for any artist to get there, but for women there are maybe triple the number of barriers, so the talent pool at the top is smaller.

“We have to wait for them to come up and then be open to booking them.”

The problem gets worse at larger festivals where big acts charge high fees and promoters have to meet those costs with ticket sales – and are also accountable to shareholders.

“You can’t say that a male band sells more tickets because they’re men,” he adds. “But you can say that they sell more tickets than another band when that’s been proven to be true.”

YouTubers and radio DJs choosing more women

Sky News looked at YouTube views and radio play to see how popular female-fronted artists are on those platforms. “Female-fronted” refers to acts with a female lead performer.

They were far better represented on both platforms than they were at the top of festival billboards.

On YouTube, in the 12 months to the end of March, female-fronted artists made up 35% of total music views, while their male counterparts were 65%. Non-binary-fronted acts were at fewer than 1%.

Almost half (24) of the 50 most searched for artists on Google in the same period were also female.

Both data sets suggest fans do want to consume female-fronted artists.

On the radio, they have averaged roughly a third (32%) of plays between 2019 and now, with male acts at just under two-thirds (65%) and non-binary at 3%.

So far in 2023, the gender balance has been almost equal, with female and male artists both at 48%, with the remainder non-binary.

Six of the top 10 songs played on the radio so far this year are by female solo artists including Miley Cyrus’s Flowers – the most popular song of 2023 so far.

Increases in non-binary representation are largely down to a small number of artists, such as Sam Smith and Olly Alexander.

At festivals there are signs of progress. Across all stages almost three in 10 (29%) acts are female-fronted – up by almost 2% on the five-year average.

But that progress isn’t reflected in headline slots.

‘Glastonbury can afford inclusion managers’

By contrast, the Mighty Hoopla, a 25,000-person festival in south London, has had no male-fronted headliners since 2018.

Olly Alexander headlined in 2018 and is returning this year.

It offers a “platform to LGBTQ+ performers” and ensures at least 50% of performers are female and non-binary across the whole line-up.

Cassie Leon, who heads-up inclusion for the festival, says with their audience, it’s “relatively easy” to commit to a diverse line-up.

“Part of queer culture is trying to uplift women as much as possible,” she adds.

Asked how other festivals should improve female representation, she says more staff should be hired specifically to promote inclusion.

“It’s everybody’s issue, from the agents to the festivals to the places finding the talent,” she says.

Specifically on Glastonbury, she adds: “If you can afford Elton John, you can afford inclusion managers.”

While Britain’s biggest festival might be less profit-focused than others, raising funds for charities and reportedly paying artists a fraction of their usual fees, smaller festivals still seem to do better at booking female-fronted headliners.

Jungle and drum and bass artist Nia Archives is headlining two indie festivals this year – We Out Here in Dorset and Outlook in Croatia – as well as playing at Glastonbury.

“It’s a hard one for me,” she says “because I know I’m being given those opportunities but also recognise that not everybody has those opportunities.”

Heavy metal and rock among worst offenders

Other than the Mighty Hoopla, no festival in our database has had more than a third female-fronted headline acts between 2018 and now.

Six have had none at all since then – Isle of Wight, Download, Kendal Calling, TRNSMT, Slam Dunk Festival and Bloodstock Open Air.

With half of the worst offenders coming under rock and heavy metal, John Rostron, of AIF, which represents Bloodstock Open Air, says things are “particularly difficult” across those genres as there is a “much smaller talent pool”.

Bloodstock’s festival director Adam Gregory shares his view.

“There is a shortage of female-fronted bands coming through the ranks,” he says, adding that headline slots are booked according to the “strongest available offering”.

John also points to the way some major festivals sign up artists exclusively – preventing them from playing other events.

“Someone playing third at Reading might be perfect to headline one of our smaller festivals, but they can’t. Both organisers and artists have a responsibility to say no to exclusives.”

‘Ethical’ promoters

There are groups trying to make a difference.

Not Bad For A Girl, a DJ collective based in Manchester and London, formed four years ago to “create a platform for female and non-binary DJs” – running their own events, performing at others, and on the radio.

They wear signature pink balaclavas in a bid to “eliminate conventional beauty standards” after members were denied opportunities on account of their gender.

Founder Martha Bolton says they actively support diverse talent, for example by “having two events and using one as a cash cow, so the other can promote an up-and-coming artist”.

She adds that big organisations like Glastonbury have a responsibility to set the standard for the industry.

“It needs to be the bigger people taking that jump for the rest of us who can’t afford the risk.”

No accountability

There is no official regulator of the music industry in the UK, so no official means of accountability when it comes to gender diversity.

UK Music, which has its own diversity taskforce, acts as a trade union, and connects smaller associations that represent specific parts of the industry.

Keychange is an EU-funded diversity programme that asks its 600 signatories (41% of which are festivals) to commit to at least 50% female inclusion. By the end of 2021, 64% of signatories had met the target.

But neither body is legally binding.

In an interview with The Guardian in March, Emily Eavis said Lizzo, who will perform just before Guns N Roses on the Pyramid Stage, could “totally headline” but the rock band were already booked.

She reiterated that female inclusion is “top of our agenda”, having committed to 50:50 representation in 2020 and secured more than half female and non-binary acts for 2023 so far.

In its diversity statement the festival says it is “working alongside experts in equality and anti-discrimination” on an internal review.

“We try our best and we obviously aim for 50:50. Some years, it’s more, some years, it’s less,” Eavis told the BBC earlier this year, adding it’s “looking like we’ve got two female headliners” for 2024.

But she added that despite being the biggest festival in the country, it is not just down to her to make change.

“We’re trying our best so the pipeline needs to be developed. This starts way back with the record companies, radio. I can shout as loud as I like but we need to get everyone on board.”

Sky News has contacted Glastonbury for further comment.

Entertainment

Kneecap rapper Mo Chara says he’s a ‘free man’ as band draw huge Glastonbury crowd

Published

5 hours ago

June 28, 2025

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Kneecap rapper Mo Chara says he's a 'free man' as band draw huge Glastonbury crowd

Kneecap rapper Liam Og O hAnnaidh told Glastonbury he is a “free man” as the Irish rap band played to a huge crowd – the biggest of their career, they said.

The trio were defiant on stage after calls from some politicians for them to be cut from the line-up.

They were greeted by cheers of support, and dozens of Palestinian flags waving in the crowd, as well as Irish flags and a few “Free Mo Chara” T-shirts.

On stage, the band told fans their legal case had been stressful, but emphasised it was nothing compared with what Palestinians are going through.

Kneecap played the West Holts stage, which has a capacity of about 30,000, and the area was closed by security about 45 minutes before their set.

They started with a montage of news readers covering O hAnnaidh’s charge. “Has anybody been watching the news?” bandmate Naoise O Caireallain joked.

They also thanked Glastonbury organisers Michael Eavis and daughter Emily for not bowing to pressure to remove them from the bill.

Earlier on Saturday, the BBC confirmed they would not be live-streaming the set but said the performance is likely to be made available on-demand later.

It is understood the performance will need to be reviewed beforehand.

Liam Og O hAnnaidh, also known as Liam O’Hanna – or by his stage name Mo Chara, was charged with a terror offence in May and appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court earlier this month.

Outside the court, he and bandmates Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh were cheered by hundreds of supporters.

O hAnnaidh is accused of displaying a flag in support of the proscribed group Hezbollah at a gig in London last November, after video footage circulated online.

He was released on bail ahead of a second court appearance in August.

One of the band’s lawyers said they would always “defend not only their rights, but the rights of artists and people all around the world”.

On social media, O hAnnaidh and the band denied support for Hezbollah after the charge was announced, but the trio are unwavering in their support for Palestinians and speaking out against the war in Gaza.

But as the band were removed from other festivals, there were calls from some for them to be taken off the bill at Glastonbury, too – with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer saying he thought they should be axed.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch also said the BBC “should not be showing” the trio’s set in a post on social media last week.

Kneecap have the support of dozens of musicians including Massive Attack, Pulp, Primal Scream and Paul Weller, who signed an open letter in May saying there had been a “concerted attempt to censor and ultimately de-platform” the group.

Kneecap released their first single in 2017 and built a loyal fanbase in the following years.

They rose to wider prominence in 2024 following the release of their debut album and award-winning eponymous film – a fictionalised retelling of how the band came together and their fight to save the Irish language.

Entertainment

Robbie Williams addresses Glastonbury rumours – as excitement builds for ‘secret’ sets

Published

14 hours ago

June 28, 2025

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Robbie Williams addresses Glastonbury rumours - as excitement builds for 'secret' sets

Pulp tried to quash the rumours, Robbie Williams was happy to fuel them – sharing a picture of a blue plaque in his name apparently slapped over a famous Glastonbury sign, before seemingly backtracking.

“30 years later…” he captioned his first social media post early on Friday morning – a reference to his headline-grabbing attendance in 1995.

This was the year Williams was famously pictured partying with Oasis‘s Liam and Noel Gallagher, shunning the boyband shackles with bleached-blonde hair and a blacked-out tooth. The writing was on the wall, and the announcement of his departure from Take That came just a few weeks later.

At Glastonbury this year, is the writing quite literally on the wall for a comeback?

Well, maybe not. A few hours after his post, Williams shared another, less cryptic message to say he would not be performing, along with his list of recommended acts to go and see – The 1975, Busta Rhymes, Charli XCX, Self Esteem and Reverend And The Makers, if you’re interested.

Is he bluffing? Double-bluffing? Who knows, but along with celeb spotting and mud, if there’s one topic of conversation that makes headlines when it comes to Glastonbury, it’s speculation about secret artists. Williams has got everybody talking.

Even before his posts, the Let Me Entertain You singer was among the artists rumoured to be performing secret sets this year, along with Pulp and Haim. Lewis Capaldi and Lorde too, with both “TBA” acts turning out to huge crowds on Friday.

In recent years, these surprise sets have turned into some of the event’s most memorable moments – think Foo Fighters as “The ChurnUps” in 2023, Pulp’s comeback in 2011, and Lady Gaga treating fans to a small performance in one of the festival’s after hours areas, Shangri-La, in 2009.

Franz Ferdinand, famous for hits including Take Me Out and Do You Want To in the mid-2000s, were the first to do it back in 2008. This was actually due to Pete Doherty’s band Babyshambles pulling out last-minute, but the approach to announcing the switch was, at the time, a novel one.

While officially, the act was “TBA”, frontman Alex Kapranos wasn’t great at keeping the secret, worried people might not turn up. He and bandmates handed out fliers, and word spread.

“We played on the Park Stage and we thought, ‘nobody’s going to know we’re playing’,” Kapranos told Sky News ahead of a return performance on Friday. “It actually ended up being one of the most amazing gigs we’ve ever played, people were so up for it and going crazy.

“We weren’t keeping it secret. We were walking about like, ‘we’re playing later on, check it out’. We’re a band from Glasgow called Franz Ferdinand.”

These now not-so-secret performances have become bigger and bigger as each festival rolls around, with leaks making headlines in the run-up to the event.

Providing handy tips and hints – and often eventually confirmation, just in time for fans to be in position – is the Secret Glasto team. They have no official ties to Glastonbury, but over the years have become a reliable source of information.

The account’s founder, who now works in a team of six, spoke to us on site – incognito, of course.

“We’ve got our own sources and we can start checking things because we’ve now had enough years that we can check in with several people,” he said. “And they trust us because we are quite sensible with when we time announcements, which I think is the key thing.”

Sometimes acts themselves will confirm, they said. Their success rate for predictions is “in the low 90%” – but dragged down mainly by inexperience in their first year, which was 2014.

Capaldi’s comeback yesterday, two years after struggling on stage at Glastonbury in 2023, was a special moment.

“It was really, really heartwarming to see him get back up,” Secret Glasto said. “There was such goodwill in the crowd and it was just magical. It’s just what secret sets should be about.”

On Saturday evening, a non-existent act called Patchwork have a pretty important billing just before Raye and then headliner Neil Young on the Pyramid Stage.

Pulp keyboard player Candida Doyle dampened rumours by reportedly saying in an interview earlier this month Glastonbury “weren’t interested” in booking the band.

But is this true?

“It happens a few times,” Secret Glasto said, of artists maybe telling little white lies to keep the secret for as long as possible. “They’ve got to keep the suspense somehow…

“Sources that we got for Pulp were really, really strong. It’s just so exciting for us, for the whole team. This is the most exciting secret set that Glastonbury’s ever done.”

It’s a fine balance – not spoiling the surprise but giving fans enough time to get where they want to be. When a festival is this big – home to around 200,000 people over the weekend – at a lot of stages, fans need to be in place early.

“The point is to always make sure people can get to the set if they wanted to.” But if a huge artist is going to surprise fans on a very small stage, sometimes they have to keep schtum for safety concerns over huge crowds. “Sometimes we’re like, we can’t print this.”

So, will Williams be playing? The rumour is that he could be joining his mate Rod Stewart, who is performing on the Pyramid Stage in the “legends” slot on Sunday.

“Robbie Williams entered this area without accreditation, authorisation, or alignment with prevailing taste,” according to the blue plaque in his social media tease, of his attendance in 1995. “His presence was uninvited, unofficial and ultimately inevitable.”

In his candid documentary series, and biopic Better Man, both released last year, Williams has been open about his struggles with fame and imposter syndrome, and how as an artist known for pop he craved respect from those seen as more credible at a time when indie music reigned.

Officially this year, there is no Robbie Williams on the line-up. Unofficially, who knows? But 30 years since his partying with the Gallaghers, pop music is embraced – and there would be a lot of love for the star if he did make an appearance now.

Entertainment

Lewis Capaldi plays emotional not-so-secret comeback set at Glastonbury

Published

14 hours ago

June 28, 2025

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Lewis Capaldi plays emotional not-so-secret comeback set at Glastonbury

Lewis Capaldi has made an emotional comeback with a “secret” performance at Glastonbury – two years after announcing a break from the spotlight, where he struggled on stage at the festival.

After revealing his new song, Survive, earlier in the day, Capaldi took to the Pyramid Stage and surveyed the huge crowd in front of him as he launched into his 2019 hit, Before You Go.

“Glastonbury, how you doing?” was the simple introduction after the first chorus, and then came his second song, Grace.

Before the next one, the Scottish star took it all in again and told the audience: “Glastonbury, it’s so good to be back… I’m not going to say much up here today because if I do, I’ll probably start crying.”

But, he added, he wanted to thank his fans, and “finish what I couldn’t the first time round”.

Along with the headliners and the Sunday afternoon “legends slots”, secret sets from the likes of Foo Fighters, The Killers, and Radiohead have become some of the most talked-about performances at Glastonbury in recent years.

This time round, there had been much speculation about some of the big unannounced slots on the bill – in particular the TBA act scheduled to appear on the festival’s main stage, the Pyramid Stage, just before Alanis Morissette on Friday afternoon.

With various clues trailed on social media and in Glasgow, where Capaldi was born, and Castle Cary, near Glastonbury, by the time Capaldi walked on stage, it was in reality no secret to all but a few of the huge crowd that had turned out for the “surprise”.

The 28-year-old acknowledged the absurdity of his set being “TBA”, describing it as the “worst kept secret” and joking: “I don’t know who’s been f*****g telling people.”

There were chants of “Oh, Lewis Capaldi!” from the crowd before he began his next songs, including Hold Me While You Wait, Bruises, Forget Me, and Someone You Loved.

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His performance was more than just a surprise set.

A few months before his last appearance at Glastonbury, again on the Pyramid Stage, in 2023, Capaldi had released the all-access documentary, How I’m Feeling Now.

It showed his rise from viral hit-maker to a star whose debut album, Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent, became the biggest-selling in the UK in its year of release – and the year after, too.

No mean feat when you consider his competition – Ed Sheeran was second in 2019 and Harry Styles in 2020.

Fans have always loved Capaldi not just for his talent as a singer and songwriter, but for his class-clown humour and his unfiltered, indifferent style.

But his sense of humour and anti-celebrity attitude masked struggles with his mental health and Tourette’s, which he spoke about candidly in the film.

At Glastonbury in 2023, the strain was clear.

Prior to the performance, he had cancelled several shows to rest and recover. On stage, he apologised as he prepared to belt out his hit song Someone You Loved.

“I’m going to be honest, everybody, but I’m starting to lose my voice up here, but we’re going to keep going and we’re going to go until the end,” he told the crowd.

“I just need you all to sing with me as loud as you can, if that’s okay?”

And of course they did, the voices of tens of thousands of people carrying him through.

In a statement afterwards, the star said the sentiment had meant “the world”, before announcing a break for “the foreseeable future”.

“I used to be able to enjoy every second of shows like this, and I’d hoped three weeks away would sort me out,” he said.

“But the truth is I’m still learning to adjust to the impact of my Tourette’s and on Saturday it became obvious that I need to spend much more time getting my mental and physical health in order, so I can keep doing everything I love for a long time to come.”

In May, Capaldi performed his first show in two years – a charity gig in Edinburgh to raise funds for the Campaign Against Living Miserably (Calm), a mental health charity he has supported over the years.

For most artists, playing the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury is a dream. Now, Capaldi has achieved it once again – this time, fans didn’t need to help him with the sing-along, but of course they joined him anyway. The love from the audience was clear.

“How far will you go to get back to the place you belong?” is one of the lines from Survive.

With this performance, Capaldi showed that this, one of the world’s most famous stages, is still that place for him.