The first round of acts for this year’s renowned Glastonbury Festival has been announced and some of the acts are dividing fans of the famous weekender.
Topping the bill on Friday, Saturday and Sunday are Arctic Monkeys, Guns N' Roses and Sir Elton John respectively and while these three acts might be a lot of people’s idea of an ideal weekend of music, many have pointed out that the headliners are all male. In total, just over half of the 54 acts announced today are male.
Although the main headliners are all male, flautist and singer Lizzo has been put on the bill as a joint headliner, playing before Guns N’ Roses head to the stage. Despite this, all of the acts closing the Pyramid Stage during the festival are male.
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However, speaking to The Guardian, festival co-organiser Emily Eavis explained that a female headliner had previously pulled out due to touring plans having changed.
Eavis added that she remained "entirely focused on balancing our bill. It's not just about gender, it's about every aspect of diversity".
Other acts on the bill include Fatboy Slim, Lana Del Rey, Lewis Capaldi, Lil Nas X, Maneskin, Christine And The Queen, Rudimental, Manic Street Preachers, The War On Drugs and Royal Blood.
While many thought the lineup held something for everyone, a lot of others took to social media to criticise the headliners, especially as the all-male headliners were announced one week before International Women's Day.
Taking to Twitter, one user posted: “Situations like this year's Glastonbury lineup are a direct symptom of industry failures to support female artists from the ground up. Getting them on the smaller stages, on radio, at live venues.”
This sentiment was shared by another who wrote: “Headspinningly regressive that they'd give Guns n Roses a headline slot over Lana.”
One more Twitter user chimed in with their disappointment at the lack of diversity in the announcement: “I think we can all agree that Glastonbury headliner lineup is deeply disappointing.
“Three male acts and Lizzo as the afterthought joint headliner? She deserves more than that. Lil Nas X, Burna Boy and Blondie all could’ve also offered a way more exciting show than AM as well.”
Another added: “Stormzy wasn't at big festival headliner status when he did Glastonbury and look what he did with the platform. Seems unusually backwards to not allow that same opportunity to literally any women.”
However, one person on Twitter pointed out that the poster, when compared to previous years, had a low amount of names on it, suggesting that more acts may be added: “The Glastonbury 2023 first poster has 54 names on it.
“This is pretty low when compared to previous years so we can probably expect more big names to come later.”
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