Isle of Wight Festival has sparked backlash after announcing its 2024 lineup with headliners The Prodigy, Pet Shop Boys, Green Day – and no women.
The annual music festival will take place next summer from 20 to 23 June, with the lineup being announced on Thursday (2 November).
But of the 16 acts playing on the main stage, only three are female: Swedish pop star Zara Larsson and soul singer Beverley Knight as solo artists, while Eighties rockers Simple Minds have included backing vocalist Sarah Brown and drummer Cherisse Osei since 2017. None of these artists, however, are playing the headline slot.
The Independent has contacted Isle of Wight Festival for comment.
Instead, Friday (21 June) night’s show will be headlined by The Prodigy, who now perform as a duo following the death of frontman Keith Flint in 2019. Saturday (22 June) will see the Pet Shop Boys headline with their Dreamworld: The Greatest Hits Live show, while American rockers Green Day will headline on Sunday (23 June) in a UK festival exclusive.
Other acts playing the main stage are The Streets, McFly, Simple Minds, Keane, Suede, Dagny and The Darkness. Suede, Jo Whiley’s 90s Anthems, Scouting for Girls, Dagny, The Mary Wallopers, Toyah and Robert, and the Rick Parfitt Jnr Band will all play at the Big Top, with more acts to be announced.
Despite the music industry claiming to have become more diverse and inclusive in recent years, male acts have continued to dominate lineups at UK festivals.
The Pet Shop Boys will headline Isle of Wight Festival next year— (PA)
In 2022, a YouGov survey found that only one in 10 headliners at the UK’s top festivals were women. Of 200 headline acts, just 26 were female. One identified as non-binary, 24 had a mixed-gender lineup, and the rest (149) were either male solo artists or all-male bands.
Last year, despite 48 per cent of the acts performing being female, Glastonbury Festival was widely criticised for featuring all-male headliners in Guns N’ Roses, Arctic Monkeys and Elton John. Many criticised the decision not to have Lizzo or Lana Del Rey, both of whom performed at the festival, in one of the headline slots.
Co-organiser Emily Eavis said that Guns N’ Roses replaced a female singer - strongly rumoured to be Taylor Swift - who “changed her touring plans”, but admitted that the struggle to book big female acts as a “pipeline” problem.
“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,” she said. In 2022, the gender and racial disparity report into UK radio found that UK male solo artists occupied the top 100 more than three times as often as female solo artists, and were present in 80 per cent of all top 100 singles.
In recent months, however, there has been a resurgence of female acts in the UK charts, thanks to hit singles from Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift, Peggy Gou, Kenya Grace and Mitski. The Barbie soundtrack also helped, with Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, and Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice all reaching the Top 10 with songs from Barbie: The Album.
