Championing the many music festivals of Scotland is a huge part of what we do at SNACK. They range from dazzling local grassroots festivals, such as Kelburn Garden Party; through innovative city festivals bringing disparate artforms together, like Edinburgh’s Hidden Door; electronic-meets-orchestral experiments at Glasgow’s Tectonics; to monoliths like TRNSMT and Celtic Connections.
Festivals are a huge part of Scottish music culture, generating enormous benefits for the country’s economy.
However, there is a problem. Gender equality within festival line-ups is still the exception rather than the norm, despite this being an issue that has been discussed for years, with many festivals putting policies in place and pledging that they will have a balanced line-up by a certain year. But it’s 2025 and there appears to have been little progress.
The majority of the UK festival line-ups this year have been disappointing on this front, with TRNSMT standing out again for all the wrong reasons. Festivals have always been about having fun, but they’re also about taking responsibility. In 2022 TRNSMT saw 80 bands and artists play across all stages, but only 26 were female artists or female-fronted bands. At this year’s TRNSMT, from the 83 bands and solo artists playing, only 33 female acts are featured in this year’s line-up and 1 non-binary performer. TRNSMT has historically been a male-dominated festival – despite pressure from publications, fans, and artists, little has changed over the years.
In 2019, the ill-fated Queen Tut’s Stage was the festival’s response to accusations of gender bias – ghettoising female artists to a separate bill within the festival was never going to be the answer. This year, TRNSMT has collaborated with BBC Introducing to create a new stage and it’s making no positive impact, with 19 artists playing over the 3 days and 7 of them being female artists or female-fronted bands.
The long-running and much-loved Orkney Blues Festival, which brings the American roots-based music to the picturesque port town of Stromness, has a similarly poor gender balance. Of the six headliners in 2023, only one was female, and three of the nine support bands had one female member. 2024’s line up didn’t fare much better, with one female headliner and one male/female duo out of the eight acts featured.
Some within the industry are sticking to the old excuse of there just not being enough good girl bands to book. Speaking with Tamara Macdonald – head of Scottish female and nonbinary songwriting collective Hen Hoose and an artist in her own right as MALKA – who’s an advocate for festivals aiming for a 50/50 line-up, she says she strongly believes this to be untrue. In her experience there are plenty of talented and festival-ready female-led bands and artists; they just don’t get the exposure they need to grow from record companies and promoters.
Pavilion is a three-day festival based in Ayrshire which features a mixture of different genres, including indie rock, dance music, and nostalgic rave – an old-skool party weekend, and it looks great. Although this is only Pavilion’s third year running, they are not immune from having an imbalanced line-up. This year there are 53 featured musicians from all backgrounds: however, there are only ten female artists playing.
This lack of exposure has a knock-on effect. If fewer female artists are being represented in lineups, then young girls won’t imagine themselves doing the same, as with the old adage ‘You have to see it, to be it.’ Having visible role models for young girls is so important, even if they are on the smaller stages and nurtured from there. In 2019, Geoff Ellis, CEO of DF Concerts and Events, which runs TRNSMT, told the BBC there were not enough women artists to allow for balance: ‘We need to get more females picking up guitars, forming bands, playing in bands.’
I wonder if he now regrets that? What message was this sending to the younger generation? How is this inspiring young girls to pursue music as a career if it seems they are being told that, despite all of the systematic barriers they experience and their actual lived experience, really it’s all their fault that their gender hasn’t done enough?
Some festivals take the responsibility more seriously. Tradfest centres around traditional Scottish music: alongside music they run a programme of film, workshops, and traditional storytelling. Speaking with Jane-Ann Purdy of Soundhouse, who run Tradfest, about what policies they have in place to ensure they are aiming for a 50/50 balanced line-up, she indicated they are at least actively considering gender balance in their work: ‘Whilst we will always look to have equal numbers of male and female or diverse-led bands, this doesn’t usually mean that we have equal numbers of male and female/gender diverse performers’. That said, there are some encouraging signs that Tradfest are trying to change aspects that are within their control, with Jane adding that, ‘we do, however, ensure that our board is gender-balanced, as is our production team’.
Initiatives like Keychange are committed to helping organisations make changes towards a more inclusive music industry. They aim to support festivals and other music-based events to make that change, asking organisations to make a pledge to help the gender imbalance within the music scene. Scottish festivals like Soundhouse and Knockengorroch, which takes place in a Galloway forest, have both committed to the Keychange pledge to feature a 50/50 gender balance in their line-ups, as a target to help make the music world a more diverse place. While this is all well and good, Keychange only plays a small part, providing a flag to raise, a framework and an idea to gather around – ultimately it’s the festivals that need to make the change.
It should be mentioned that when approaching programmers at different Scottish festivals, a number declined to respond. A further number, when asked about policies they have in place to help achieve gender balance within their line-ups, were defensive. One festival spokesperson replied that having rigid targets for equality adds another level of complexity to the huge task of curating a four-day festival line-up.
However, some festivals were happy to answer questions on gender balance. Hazel Johnson, director of Hidden Door, a multi-arts festival based in Edinburgh, commented that, ‘Whilst artistic excellence is clearly a priority for our programme, we have found that this never needs to be sacrificed by also seeking equality and diversity in our line-ups.’ However, some festivals are still make the argument that having a 50/50 gender balance policy compromises the lineup.
Hazel continues, saying that Hidden Door’s 2025 line-up has a minimum of 50 percent female and non-binary artists. ‘We never make a big deal about this, as we believe it’s just part of putting on a brilliant and varied event, and we’d be daft not to take full advantage of the wonderfully diverse creative community.’
And there are glimmers of hope for the future elsewhere. Girls Rock Glasgow is a nine-day summer school dedicated to empowering young female and gender-expansive artists through music. Their mission is about creating a safe space for the next generations of musicians. It’s a great stepping stone for young people who want to get into the music world, getting them excited about seeing that there is a viable future for them.
However, there remains a gulf between grassroot projects such as Girls Rock and the major Scottish festivals. One possible solution could be to do something similar to FEMMESTIVAL, which is an all-female England-based festival run by, well, women. But what makes them so different and, in particular, successful in achieving gender balance, when TRNSMT have tried to run an all-female stage but evidently failed? Speaking to FEMMESTIVAL, we learn that they think they are doing things differently.
Founder Talia Andrea told us that the goal of the festival is to focus on female artists at the grassroots level and give them a platform to move on to bigger and better things, adding, ‘I think FEMMESTIVAL has been particularly successful because it has built up a reputation as a warm and inclusive space, with lovingly-curated line-ups and a friendly, community spirit.’
But not everyone totally agrees with this approach.
Tamara Macdonald from Hen Hoose mentions that she wishes festivals like FEMMESTIVAL weren’t needed, adding that although it is a good stepping stone, she believes that there is a danger of normalising female artists performing in their own separate box rather than being integrated. She believes that people shouldn’t have to pay to see an all-women festival and there should just be more female artists and musicians on the stages.
‘Build it, and they will come’ is the famous cliché, but it will take time. Women and girls need to see that if they commit to music at a young age, there will be a place for them in the industry. Change needs to start happening from the top down – it’s unfair that small grassroots festivals currently do more than the biggest names on this front. In years to come, we will see the benefits.
To us, there’s a responsibility on bigger festivals to lead the way and use their platform to encourage other festivals, and encourage and nurture more grassroots Scottish female and non-binary talent to the top of their line-ups. What potentially vital, potentially game-changing female and non-binary voices and talent will be missed if they don’t?
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All figures updated 20/05/2025
