The singer has criticised music festivals for not booking more female artists as part of their lineups.
The gender imbalance in music festival lineups is a subject that has been brought up by many recently. Festivals have been under a lot of fire for booking primarily male artists, especially as headlining acts. The percentage of male artists in music festival lineups is generaly 75% and above, and female headliners are quite rare. EDM festivals present even worse statistics, for example, UK dance music festival lineups reportedly saw only about 3% female artists in 2015!
On an interview with Rolling Stone, Ellie Goulding spoke about how she may have headlined festivals, but is one of the very few women who has. “Generally I feel like as a woman in music, the one thing that I’ve noticed, which I’ve said before very openly, is that I feel that there aren’t as many women representing festivals,” she said. “it’s very man-heavy. I mentioned some specific festivals that are very male-band heavy. I play festivals all the time — I’ve headlined probably 50 festivals this year. Are there any other women? No, not really.”
This treatment of women extends into the media too, adds Goulding. “I feel like in the media, it’s disguised as other things. For example, when I’m in a swimsuit and I don’t look good, the media says “flaunts her bikini body.” They’re desperately trying to say something negative, but they can’t because they’d get so much sh*t. So personally as a female musician on the road, I feel like I’ve had a lot of respect, but there are certain things that are still unfair.”