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The female:pressure FACTS study quantifies the gender distribution of artists performing at electronic music festivals worldwide, and has published reports since 2013.

Over the past decade, FACTS has revealed a rise in the proportion of female acts from 9.2% in 2012 to 30.0% in 2023. The data on non- binary artists shows an increase from 0.4% in 2017 to 3.3% in 2023.

Background

The female:pressure FACTS report has been a continuous project under- taken by volunteer members of the female:pressure network to quantify the gender distribution of artists per- forming at electronic music festivals worldwide. FACTS 2024 is the sixth edition of the report, which was first published in 2013, and updated in 2015, 2017, 2020, and 2022.

Methods

Data was provided by the female:pressure Trouble Makers, female:pressure members, and festival organizers. Gender proportions for each festival are assessed for female, male, non-binary [starting 2017], and mixed acts [group of two or more artists of different genders]. The number of acts are counted per slot of stage time. “Acts” include musical and visual artists or bands who appear on stage/on screen, as they are listed in the festival’s program.

Results

We collected data for 175 festival editions [of 110 unique festivals] that took place in 2022 and 2023. Adding this to the previous data, female:pressure has collected data for 1008 festival editions [281 unique festivals in total] from 2012 to 2023 from 50 countries. The proportion of female acts rose from 9.2% in 2012 to 29.8% in the current reporting period of 2022 to 2023. In 2022/23, 2.5% of all acts surveyed were non-binary and 6.9% were mixed in comparison to 58.4% male acts. Larger festivals tend to have lower proportions of female and non- binary acts. Publicly funded festivals and festivals with female artistic directors have higher proportions of female acts.

Conclusion

We see a slow but steady rise in female and non-binary acts in electronic music festivals over the past decade, comprising almost a third of all artists booked. However, there is also a continued trend of the largest festivals booking the fewest female and non- binary acts. Indeed, the smaller the festival the more gender diverse its line-up is likely to be. There is clearly still a significant imbalance in gender representation on electronic music festival stages today.

FACTS 2024 – Introduction
FACTS 2024 – Methods
FACTS 2024 – Results
FACTS 2024 – Discussion
FACTS 2024 – Call to Action
FACTS 2024 – Credits and Provisions
FACTS 2024 – Appendices

Info graphic by Elisa Metz
Info graphic by Elisa Metz

1. INTRODUCTION

The female:pressure FACTS report is a continuous project that quantifies the gender distribution of artists performing at electronic music festivals worldwide. The study is undertaken by volunteer members of the female:pressure network. FACTS 2024 is the sixth edition of the report, which was first published in 2013 and updated in 2015, 2017, 2020, and 2022.

The FACTS project was initiated in 2012 to address and quantify the lack of equal opportunity and visibility for female artists in the electronic music scene, with the first edition published in March 2013. The results of FACTS 2013 indicated that barely 10% of acts at electronic music festivals worldwide were women, opening up an international discussion about
the state of women’s opportunities in electronic music.

In 2015 and 2017, we updated and extended the report. Although the inequities within the industry had become a popular topic of debate since the 2013 edition, FACTS 2015 demonstrated the continued under- representation of women artists at electronic music festivals. FACTS 2017 marked a new, more thorough approach to conducting and presenting the study as the methods of data collection and analysis were more explicitly defined. The report was more comprehensive than previous reports [including more festivals than previously], and the results showed an improving situation regarding the gender balance. Newly introduced in FACTS 2020 were the non-binary gender category, as well as data on: the atten- dance numbers of a festival, whether or not it received public funding, and the gender[s] of its artistic director[s]. In order to quantify the response of festival organisers to the COVID-19 pandemic, the FACTS 2022 and 2024 editions also collected data on how the festival was presented [onsite, online, or hybrid].

Over the course of 2022 and 2023 our team reached out to all of the festivals included in the study, inviting festival organisers to participate by submitting their data. We always appreciate having organisers respond to our call, as it reduces the amount of data that we need to collect ourselves. However, we have seen a gradual decline in responses over the past three editions: For FACTS 2024, 22 festival organisers responded to our call for data, while 28 festival organisers submitted gender data for FACTS 2022, and 30 submitted data for the FACTS 2020 edition. It is unclear what has caused this decline in responses from festival organisers.

By observing how slowly the percentage of female and non-binary artists has increased over the past decade of FACTS surveys, we see the extent to which inequality is a systemic issue. Structural sexism perpetuates inequality by creating barriers and disincentives for artists of marginalized genders, limiting success in the arts to the status quo. While this phenomenon is receiving more media coverage today, we believe that measuring trends through the FACTS study is necessary to understand developments in the electronic music industry and to hold decision-makers accountable.

In adding the non-binary category to the 2020 edition of the study, we confronted an important question in our data collection process: How should we address systemic bias in a direct manner without inadvertently reinforcing the reductive language commonly used? We had many discussions regarding the use of the terms “female,” “non-binary,” and “male,” delving into the meanings that societies place upon these terms, and whether it was useful at all to categorize artists this way. Ultimately, we adopted these three terms, despite being an organization that recognizes many more genders beyond these categories, because the industry as a whole generally does not. To address the industry’s inequality, therefore, necessitates the use of the language of the industry.

The FACTS project, like the female:pres- sure network, is the result of grassroots activism, conducted independently from any organization and without external funding. The 2024 edition of the report was undertaken by a small group of core volunteers, nicknamed the “Trouble Makers,” with the aid of 16 helpers.

FACTS is a completely volunteer-run project, which means it is not beholden to any governmental agency, grant- awarding institution, or company with regard to the scope of the project. The project receives no institutional support or funding. In recent years FACTS has suffered from a decline in volunteers. The current core team of Trouble Makers, who have undertaken the many tasks necessary for FACTS to exist over the past several years, have all experienced life changes that have required them to minimise the amount of time dedicated to the project, or, in some cases, to stop working on the project altogether. Efforts to find a new team of Trouble Makers have so far been unsuccessful. Until/unless such volunteers come forward to take over, FACTS will likely be put on indefinite hiatus. The good news is that if such people do come forward, the Trouble Makers have compiled extensive documentation of procedures and methodology that a new team of TMs could use to continue the work.

2. METHODS

Aims and Objectives

The aim of the present study was to assess the gender distribution among artists performing at electronic music festivals around the world. 

Specifically, we wanted to:

  • assess the gender proportions among artists performing at electronic music festivals taking place in the years 2022 and 2023;
  • assess trends in gender proportions from 2012 to 2023; and 
  • assess differences in these gender proportions for regions, countries, and other festival characteristics.

Gender proportions are assessed for female, male, non-binary, and mixed acts [non-binary only for data starting in 2017].

Data Collection

Data was collected for countries world- wide with no restrictions. We used a standardised online form to collect sets of data for each festival edition. 

The survey’s focus is on electronic music festivals. The Trouble Makers assembled the list of festivals from previous FACTS surveys, lists of electronic music festivals found online, and suggestions from the female:pressure network and the general public. Festivals were included if they featured a mainly electronic music program. Once a festival was included, all acts were counted regardless of their musical genre.

Additionally, artists’ names were collected in June and December 2023 using Python libraries Requests and BeautifulSoup. We utilized a list of Resident Advisor event URLs to retrieve raw event data through the Requests library, subsequently parsing it with Beautiful Soup. Data cleaning involved basic Python text cleaning methods and regular expressions. The final dataset comprised individual tables for each event, featuring one row for each artist or b2b act, along with essential event details [name, year, city, country, event URL, custom event ID]. Additionally, Resident Advisor artist links were included if avail- able. This data collection process was supported by a Berlin-based feminist data scientist. These data sets [one per festival] were then further used to assess the gender of the artists manually.

The study’s focus is on electronic music festivals. The Trouble Makers compiled the list of festivals from previous FACTS studies and suggestions from the female:pressure network and the general public. Festivals were included if they featured a mainly electronic music program. Once a festival was included, all acts were counted regardless of their musical genre.

For each festival, the following data were collected:

  • Name of festival;
  • World region;
  • Country; 
  • City [starting in 2017];
  • Year; 
  • Number of female acts in the line-up
  • Number of male acts in the line-up
  • Number of non-binary acts in the line-up [starting in 2017]
  • Number of mixed acts in the line-up [two or more genders in one time slot]
  • Number of unidentified acts in the line-up [gender unknown / non-determinable]
  • Whether public funding was received [starting in 2017]
  • Number of attendees [starting in 2017]
  • Gender of artistic directors [starting in 2017]
  • How the festival was presented: onsite, online, or hybrid [starting in 2020]

The number of acts were counted per slot of stage time. For example: Dasha Rush & Donato Dozzy back-to-back DJ set: categorised as 1 mixed act. Electric Indigo & Thomas Wagensommerer a/v set: categorised as 1 mixed act. Lucrecia Dalt & Gudrun Gut live: categorised as 1 female act.

“Acts” include musical and visual artists or bands who appear on stage/on screen, as they are listed in the festival’s program. We did not count installations, film screenings, or conference programs.

For the purpose of this study, gender data is distinguished and collected as female [persons using the pronouns she/her], non-binary [persons using the pronouns they/them, or other combinations], and male [persons using the pronouns he/ him]. Transgender artists are categorised according to the gender pronouns used in artist bios, social media, etc. We used publicly available biographical data about the artists to determine what pronouns they used, either by visiting their websites and/or social media pages, or by searching for articles about the artist. Cis-male artists with female aliases/ monikers were categorised as male artists if they use the pronouns he/him. In cases where an artist’s pronouns or identity could not be found, the artist was categorised as “unidentified.”

Data was provided by the Trouble Makers, female:pressure members, and festival organisers. Festival organisers were emailed standardised letters over the course of two years explaining the back- ground and the purpose of the study along with an invitation to enter their festival data into a short online form. To reduce data entry errors, we verified
as much as possible the newly collected data [2022 to 2023] with a second or third data count. A margin of tolerance was set at 5% of the mean total number of acts per festival edition. The difference between the first and second count for each gender category should be equal to or less than the tolerance margin, otherwise a third [final] count was done by an experienced group member.

Data Analysis

Data was analyzed descriptively. Female, male, non-binary, mixed, and unidentified gender proportions are presented numer- ically and graphically: overall, by year, by country, by region, and by other festival characteristics. In addition, trends over time for specific festivals [with data for several time points] are presented. Mean [i.e.average] percentages are calculated by adding the number of acts for the specific gender divided by the total number of acts [times 100] for each festival. Due to rounding, numbers presented throughout this document may not precisely add up to 100%.

Festivals were also categorized and analyzed by the total number of acts. To see if gender proportions vary with the size of the festival, we categorized festivals into three groups: small [up to 25 acts], medium [26 to 50 acts], and large [more than 50 acts], as well as into five more refined groups: very small [less than 20 acts], small [20 to 29 acts], medium [30 to 45 acts], large [46 to 90 acts], and very large [more than 90 acts].

For data from 2017 onwards, gender proportions were analysed by characteristics: whether public funding was received, the audience size [attendance numbers], and the gender of the festival’s artistic directors. For data from 2020 onwards, gender proportions are presented according to how the festivals were performed [onsite, online, or hybrid].

3. RESULTS

Number of Festivals and Festival Type

In this edition of the study, we collected data for 175 festival editions [of 110 different festivals] from 2022 to 2023. This includes 103 festival editions in 2022 and 72 in 2023. Adding this to the previous data, female:pressure has collected data for 1008 festival editions [281 festivals] from 2012 to 2023 [Table 1].

Table 1. Number of festivals [n, %] by year

The dimensions of the FACTS reports grew over time. In the first report [2013], 3,970 artists from 53 festivals were included, while in the 2015 report 2,096 artists from 44 festivals were included. Starting in 2017, new artists and festivals were added to the previous data, covering a range of years within each report. For the current report [2024], we added 11,353 artists from 175 new festival editions to obtain a total of 56,457 artists from 1008 festival editions [Figure 1].

Figure 1. Growth of the reports

For 2022 to 2023, festivals from 35 countries were included with 126 [72.0%] festival editions from Europe and 25 [14.3%] from North America. The 24 [13.7%] remaining festival editions were from other regions. For 2012 to 2023, festivals from 50 countries were included. Data for 110 festivals were collected for only one time point, while data for 34 festivals were collected at two time points [i.e. two yearly editions]. For 137 festivals, data are available for 3 or more years between 2012 and 2023, including 4 festivals with data for 11 years [Table 2].

Table 2. Number of festivals with amount of editions counted [n, %]

For the years 2022 and 2023, we categorized festival editions as either online [no in-person events], onsite [all events take place in-person], or hybrid [a mixture of online and in-person events]. The majority of festival editions [85.7%] took place onsite [Table 3]. Compared with FACTS 2022, which included 17.6% online editions, only 3.4% of festival editions took place exclusively online in 2022/23.

Table 3. Type of festival [n, %] [2020 to 2021]

Overall, the mean [i. e., average] festival size was 56 acts with a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 726 acts per festival; in total, 56,457 acts are included [2012 to 2023]. For the current period of 2022 to 2023, festivals have a mean of 64.9 acts [minimum of 6, maximum of 458] and a total of 11,353 acts. During the pandemic years, the number of acts was significantly reduced [Figure 2].

Figure 2. Mean festival size in number of acts over time [2012 to 2023]

Gender Proportions of Festival Acts

For the period from 2012 to 2023, 20.9% of all acts are female, while 69.3% are male, 7.1% are mixed acts, 1.3% are non-binary acts [starting from 2017], and 1.9% are unidentified [i.e., acts where the gender could not be identified] [Figure 2, top]. For the newly collected data for festivals from 2022 to 2023, there are 29.8% female acts, 2.5% non-binary acts, 58.4% male acts‚ 6.9% mixed, and 2.3% unidentified acts [Figure 3, bottom].

Figure 3. Gender proportions of festival acts [Top: 2012 to 2023. Bottom: 2022 to 2023]

Gender Proportions over Time

From 2012 to 2023, there is an increase in the number of female artists and a decrease in the number of male artists [Figures 4 and 5].

Figure 4. Female acts in % over time [2012 to 2023]
Figure 5. Female, male, non-binary, and mixed acts in % over time [2012 to 2023]

Table 4 shows the proportions of female, male, non-binary, mixed, and unidentified acts for each year from 2012 to 2023.

Table 4. Female, male, non-binary, mixed, and unidentified acts in % over time

For festivals with data for 10 or 11 years, we assessed changes over time per festival. Figure 6 shows the percentage of female acts for each festival. Results for all festivals by year are shown in Appendix 1.

Figure 6. Female acts in % for festivals with data for 10 or 11 years

Gender Proportions for Different Regions

Comparing festivals across regions from 2022 to 2023, there were 31.3% female acts at European festivals and 25.9% female acts at North American festivals [Figure 7].

Figure 7. Gender proportions for European [top] and North American [bottom] festivals [2022 to 2023]

In addition, we analyzed the proportions of female acts for European and North American festivals over time [Figure 8].

Figure 8. Female proportions for European and North American festivals in % over time [2012 to 2023]

Results for further regions are shown in Table 5.

Table 5. Gender proportions for all regions [2022 to 2023]

Gender Proportions by Country

Gender proportions are quite different when comparing across countries [comparing only countries with ten or more festivals]. For example, from 2012 to 2023, festivals in Portugal, Mexico, and Russia have the lowest percentages of female acts [less than 13%] while festivals in Slovenia and Sweden have the highest percentage [over 36%]. Table 6 shows the proportions of female, non-binary, male, mixed, and unidentified acts by country for 2012 to 2023 [only for countries with ten or more festivals, ranked by proportion of female acts].

Table 6. Gender proportion of acts by country [2012 to 2023], for countries with ten or more festivals]

In the current counting period from 2020 to 2021 we did not have as many countries with ten or more festival editions as in previous counting periods. Table 7 shows the proportions of female, non-binary, male, mixed, and unidentified acts by country [again only for countries with ten or more festival editions].

Table 7. Gender proportion of acts by country [2022 to 2023]

We also analyzed the proportions of female acts over time for the countries with data for the most festival editions: Austria, France, Spain, UK, USA [Figure 9]. Results for all countries are shown in Appendix 2 and results for all countries and respective festivals are shown in Appendix 3.

Figure 9. Female proportions for selected countries in % over time [2012 to 2023]

Gender Proportions by Size of Line-Up

To assess if gender proportions vary with the size of the current festival program, the number of total acts was used to categorise festivals into three groups [Figure 10, top], as well as into five more refined groups [Figure 10, bottom]. In general, the smaller a festival line-up, the higher the percentage of female acts. Conversely, larger festivals tend to have higher percentages of male acts. Results for all festivals from 2012 to 2023 by size of line-ups are shown in Appendix 4.

Figure 10. Female, male, non-binary and mixed acts by festival size in three [top] and five [bottom] categories [2022 to 2023]

Gender Proportions by Audience Size

In addition to categorising festivals by the number of acts, we used the approximate number of visitors [attendance] to classify festivals according to size. Table 8 shows gender proportions by the number of visitors for festivals taking place in 2022 and 2023. As we saw in the comparison of festival size by line-up, similarly, festivals with larger audience sizes also have higher proportions of male acts.

Table 8. Gender proportions by audience size [attendance] [2022 to 2023]

Gender Proportions by Gender of Curators

To assess an association between the gender of a festival’s artistic directors and the gender of the performing acts, Table 9 shows data for 2022 to 2023. The proportion of female acts is highest for festivals with an all female team [62.7%], while festivals with an all male team only have 27.0% female acts. The proportion of non-binary acts is also highest for festivals with an all female team [6.7%]. Notably, for 94 out of 175 festival editions that we counted for 2022 and 2023 we could not find information on who curated the line-ups. More transparency from electronic music festival organizers about who is curating their line-ups would be beneficial.

Table 9. Gender proportions by the gender of festival’s artistic directors [2022 to 2023]

Gender Proportions by Funding

We also assessed whether gender proportions differ when festivals receive public funding. Table 10 shows data for 2022 to 2023. For festivals with public funding the percentage of female acts is 34.6%, while for festivals with no public funding the percentage of female acts is 28.0%. Again, for 61 out of 175 of festival editions [2022 and 2023] we could not determine whether public funding was used; more transparency on how festivals are funded would also be beneficial.

Table 10. Gender proportions by public funding [2022 to 2023]

Gender Proportions by Presentation Type

In 2022 and 2023 only a few festivals were held online or hybrid. The percentage of female acts from 2022 to 2023 was fairly similar for online, onsite, or hybrid events [28.5% – 32.8%] [Table 11].

Table 11. Gender proportions by type of festival [2022 to 2023]

Top 10 Festivals with the Highest Proportions of Female Acts

For the years 2022 and 2023, we assessed the festivals with the highest proportion of female acts and ranked them. This was only done for festivals with 20 or more acts. Results for the ten highest ranking festivals are shown in Tables 12 and 13. Results for all festivals are shown in Appendix 5.

Table 12. Top ten festivals by female proportion in 2022 [for festivals with at least 20 acts]]
Table 13. Top ten festivals by female proportion in 2023 [for festivals with at least 20 acts]

Top 10 Festivals with the Highest Proportions of Male Acts

Similarly, we assessed the festivals with the highest proportion of male acts [for festivals with 20 or more acts only]. Results for the ten highest ranking festivals are shown in Tables 14 and 15. Results for all festivals are shown in Appendix 6.

Table 14. Top ten festivals by  male proportion in 2022 [for festivals with at least 20 acts]
Table 15. Top ten festivals by male proportion in 2023 [for festivals with at least 20 acts]

4. DISCUSSION

Summary of the Results and Conclusion

In our present study assessing festival acts from 2022 to 2023, we found that 29.8% of all acts were female, 58.4% were male, 2.5% were non-binary, and 6.9% were mixed. The proportion of female acts overall rose from 9.2% in 2012 to 29.8% in the 2022 to 2023 counting period.

We see a steady rise in female acts in electronic music festivals over the past ten years. However, currently only 29.8% of all acts are female in comparison to 58.4% male acts.

Comparison with Other Studies

Gender diversity in Wikipedia articles, ongoing
This is a project that measures the gender diversity of the authors cited in Wikipedia articles. Its aims and methods are similar to those of FACTS in that it examines the list of citations in a Wikipedia article [its “line-up”], associates a gender with the author[s] [“artist”] of each citation, and then visualizes the gender statistics graphically.

#bookmorewomen, ongoing
The goal of the initiative #bookmorewomen is to provide a visual representation of the gender imbalance of artists performing at music festivals by removing male artists from line-up posters. Any band, group, or solo artist who is or features at least one woman or nonbinary musician as an “official” permanent member remains on the poster. Book More Women was created in 2018; since then, over 375 festival line-ups in the US have been researched. In 2023, the results show that all-male acts made up 60 percent of major US music festival line-ups. Starting in 2024 each individual “official” musician of an act will be sorted into three groups: women, nonbinary [may include gender-queer, agender, gender fluid, and other identities], and men.
The Book More Women website provides a helpful list of organizations who are fighting for equality and championing women in music.

BE THE CHANGE: Women in Music, 2023
Amongst other findings, this 2023 study by Believe and TuneCore in collaboration with Luminate shows that there is a “perception gap”; less than 60 percent of the 1656 artists and industry professionals who took part in the survey believe gender discrimination is a major issue in the industry. When taking the gender of the respondents into account women and non-binary artists and professionals are more likely to see gender discrimination as a problem compared to male individuals. The report also points out that “gender discrimination is disproportionately experienced by women and gender expansive individuals. Women are +25% more likely to report being told that their gender is not a good fit for a job. Nonbinary individuals are +200% and transgender individuals are +250% more likely to report being told the same”.

Keychange Pledge Research Report, 2022
The Keychange Pledge Research Report shows, among other things, that almost 200 signatories of the Keychange Pledge focus on balancing 50/50 gender representation in programming and bookings, staff and leadership positions, representatives, educators, content, participants and audience and partners. But if you look at the numbers of those signatories who provided data the gender balance achievement increased by approximately 25 percent [from 2,7% in 2018 to 28,5% in 2018] but overall, the gender balance is only 28,5 percent in 2021.

Open Method for Coordination, 2023
The OMC [Open Method for Coordination] working group of EU member states experts in the field of the arts, culture and creative sector published a work plan for culture [2019-2022] based on information and data from a survey. The survey focuses on the status and working conditions of artists and cultural and creative professionals. The results show among other things that one of the areas and points for action is fair practice. Besides precariousness as a key issue in the context of fair practices for those artists and professionals the report also refers to power dynamics that leave artists in a weak negotiating position. To address unfair practices the report calls for fair opportunity, equality and diversity and fair representation. The results and assumptions of the OMC with regard to unfair practices is in line with our results over the years in the context of gender misrepresentation at electronic music festivals. There is an improvement in the representation of female artists but a lot more has to be done to realize fair practices towards equality and diversity.
European Commission, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, The status and working conditions of artists and cultural and creative professionals – Report of the OMC [Open Method of Coordination] group of EU Member States’ experts – Final report, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023

Progressing Gender Representation In UK Dance Music, 2022
The 2022 report Progressing Gender Representation In UK Dance Music was commissioned by The Jaguar Foundation with financial support from the Sony Music UK Social Justice Fund. The report presents findings based on both quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis. Quantitative analysis was undertaken to identify gender percentages of event line-ups, radio airplay, Spotify playlists, charts, and employment in the music industry using Chartmetric’s pronoun and gender dataset. Qualitative analysis was based on interviews and discussions with artists and industry stakeholders. Like FACTS their findings indicate a gradual increase in non-male representation over time in line-ups, but they also point to the staying power of an industry ‘boy’s club’ in the live music scene.

Doing gender in Event and Festival Management, 2020
A research project [conceptual discussion] in the field of critical gender studies and events studies from 2020 with the aim to adopt a feminist and intersectional perspective for events environments and to change the dominant heteronormative and patriarchal power structures and practices points out that it is important to incorporate “feminist and/or gender-aware frameworks” within the research about event management and improve praxis in the field. Katherine Daspher and Rebecca Finkel point out that events can be perceived as gendered spaces and practices, in which women and minorities experience prejudice and marginalization. To improve the events culture with regards to gender equality the authors suggest that “the professional event manager” has to have a well-developed sense of ethics and professional responsibility which includes gender-aware perspectives and inclusive practices for festivals and events. They conclude that “more widespread critical engagement with inequalities in festivals and events contexts is needed to build legitimacy and improve both scholarship and praxis” and that it is important to research and understand the ways “in which events-related gender, equality, and diversity policies have an impact on people and places”.

Strengths and Limitations of the Survey

Categorising festival line-up slots by gender is not as simple as it may seem, so we developed guidelines for counting as accurately and consistently as possible. Nonetheless, some not-so-easy-to- answer questions inevitably arise. For example: How should we count a slot that is announced under a single, easy to identify artist name who actually performed with other musicians, singers, or visual artists with different genders who are not listed in the line-up? Additionally, even if you were present at the performance, you may not have seen everybody on stage. How does one ensure accuracy in these instances? Such questions often depend upon insider accounts, leading to varying results for the same festival edition.

Another very frequent phenomenon is the presence of different information about the same festival edition in different media sources. For instance, a festival’s Resident Advisor page often lists a different number of acts than the Facebook event. In addition, programs are frequently updated as plans change, thus various versions can be found online. Quite a few websites or single web pages disappear, or substantially change over time, making it difficult to find the line-up in instances where initial gender counts were submitted a year or two ago.

On the other hand, it is a huge benefit to have many helpers who are directly involved in local music communities, and therefore can supplement online research with first-hand knowledge. 

With twelve years of data collection, we have a better look at trends over time, and have a significant advantage over studies initiated more recently.

Because of the reduction in volunteer hours, we were not able to conduct as much data verification as we would have liked. Our volunteers provided two independent counts of 11% of the festival editions but we were only able to verify 2% of those for the current study. For comparison, we were able to verify 34% of festival editions for FACTS 2022

When counts could not be verified we prioritized data provided by festival organisers, assuming it to be more accurate than our own counts. We assume that any potential errors in counting festival acts are random rather than systematic. Thus, errors should not systematically bias the results in any one direction, but instead even each other out.

We counted the number of acts for each festival, not the number of persons on stage. Assuming no systematic gender difference in the number of persons in female, non-binary, and male acts, the analysis would yield similar gender proportions if acts or persons are counted. Whether this assumption holds for electronic music is unclear. Collecting data about the number of persons and not the number of acts [as we did] might lead to different results.

Assessing the categories of attendance, curators, and public funding is extremely difficult without the help of the festival organisers. The publicly available information about these categories is very limited. Most festivals do not disclose the names of their artistic direction team. This again illustrates the importance of communication with festival organisers. We believe that by involving curators and organisers, we can raise awareness and foster reflection about festival curation. In general, we often face a lack of transparency that limits gathering and analyzing data, as well as our ability to catalyse positive action to make the electronic music industry more representative.

Selection bias is probably one of the most significant causes for possible distortion of the results. For example, organisers of festivals with a higher number of female acts might be more willing to take part in the study, leading to an overestimation of female acts overall. Remedying this bias by counting all electronic music festivals in existence is unfortunately not achievable. In addition, publicly available data for festivals in some countries or regions are sparse and thus not representative.

One reason that we are interested in ascertaining whether a festival received public funding is to see if there is any relationship between public funding and the number of female and non-binary artists on the line-up. For example, the Musicboard Berlin conditions festival funding on the following: “…ensure the participation of at least 50 percent female, non-binary, and queer artists.” We do not assume all institutional public funding has such requirements, but there are indications in our data that publicly funded festivals have higher proportions of female acts.

5. CALL TO ACTION

Despite the rise in gender diversity at electronic music festivals over the past decade, the proportion of female and non-binary acts is still significantly lower than that of male acts. We would thus like to share some suggestions from our own experience and that of many friends and colleagues to help improve the gender diversity among music festivals.

In addition to presenting gender data, we also wish to promote improvements for the future and suggest actions for festival organizers, artists, journalists, policy advocacy groups and politicians, and festival attendees. These lists comprise actions suggested by the Trouble Makers as well as members of the larger female:pressure community.

Points of Action for Festival Organizers

  • Members of majority groups should actively show solidarity with minorities in the field; see, for example, the GRAMMY Awards Show Inclusion Rider.
  • Festivals, in particular larger festivals, should consider a diversity, equity, and inclusion committee.
  • Book more people of different genders. Book more people of colour. If you believe they are unfamiliar to your audience and/or won’t bring in enough money, use your resources to invest in good press work and consider installing local/underground stages and promote a general ethos of inclusivity at your events. Network and collaborate with booking agencies that have diverse rosters and inform yourself about and/or connect with festivals around the world that have diverse line-ups. 
  • Delegate your curating power. Inform yourself about maker spaces and workshops that serve underrepresented groups in music production and skills. These types of community spaces have important knowledge to share. See, for example, Hyperreality Festival’s invitation of crews, clubs, and collectives to curate different time slots.
  • On the organizational level, install a mixed-gender team to program your festival’s line-up. 
  • If you are interested in having a diverse line-up that reflects the state of the art in electronic music, you might take actions such as making public calls for participation and specifically make diverse representation a criterion for selection. Be intentional and transparent about your inclusivity goals.
  • Support your local underground scene by connecting with record dealers and music journalists who are experts in the field. 
  • If you have the capacity, include discussion and skill-sharing programs to promote diversity and inclusion in the electronic music industry. Host workshops on topics such as music production, gear selection, music promotion, and other music business skills. By facilitating skill-sharing workshops, you can foster a community where budding artists can connect with one another and the scene. You may even cultivate the skills of artists who may play at your festival in the future. We believe that the relationship between artists and festival promoters will change for the better as a result. Workshops and discussions can be funded in a variety of ways, from ticket sales to donations to institutional funding from socio-cultural programs, for example. 
  • Ensure safe working conditions and accountability at your festival by training personnel in cultural sensitivity and inclusion, so that all artists are treated with respect, regardless of race or gender. Consider often-overlooked details such as cooperative and safe childcare for the families of artists and staff and gender-neutral toilet facilities.
  • Initiatives like the Awareness Akademie in cooperation with stakeholders could develop guidelines to create a certificate for clubs and festivals. If a festival complies with such guidelines, they would be able to promote their events with the logo and certification.
    Ensure safe working conditions and accountability at your festival by training personnel in cultural sensitivity and inclusion, so that all artists are treated with respect, regardless of race or gender. Consider often-overlooked details such as cooperative and safe childcare for the families of artists and staff and gender-neutral toilet facilities.
  • We would like to see widespread adoption of a “Code of Conduct,” a guideline for best practices for festivals to accommodate the societal and cultural implications that their programs, advertising, and publications produce, by electronic music festivals. We believe it is never and has never been “just about the music.” Festivals have interests such as: obtaining fame or relevance, having economic success, or promoting particular agendas—many times of personal importance—such as the advancement of a genre or political worldview, among others. A good example of such a code was posted in 2018 by We Have a Voice. Another good example is the Code adopted by the Ableton Loop Summits. Tarmac Festival includes this line on their website: “racism, sexism, antisemitism and all other forms of discrimination won’t be tolerated and will lead to immediate banishment.”

Points of Action for Artists

  • Connect yourself with local and/or global networks and seek out resources for female and non-binary artists, many of which are listed on the female:pressure website
  • To artists in positions of relative cultural power, in particular white cis-men, we applaud those of you who have shown solidarity with female and non-binary colleagues by boycotting festivals when their line-ups fail to be diverse or inclusive. We think strategies such as this are effective at making promoters and curators question their policies.
  • Learn what it means to be an ally. Make the effort to understand and overcome your biases. Consider how you can use your position to empower gender minorities and marginalized artists in the scene, listen, and take action consistently. 
  • Inclusion riders can be powerful tools. See, for example, DJ/Producer Om Unit’s inclusion rider. Breaka and object blue also use inclusion riders. More on inclusion riders can be read at the Electric Hawk.
  • If you are offered a gig but cannot accept it, consider recommending to the hiring person an artist from an underrepresented community that you know [or know of]. Please, though, be sure only to do so for gigs where you feel this person will be relatively safe, both physically and psychologically.

Points of Action for Journalists

  • Make sure that the pieces you pitch reflect the diversity of the scene.
  • Cover equality initiatives within the scene, such as when an artist adopts an inclusion rider. 
  • Cover collectives, communities, and events that continue to do excellent work in regards to gender and racial diversity; to show that it’s possible, more so when these initiatives are successful.
  • Include commentary from artists of marginalized genders, especially those of color, on a range of topics, not just equality and race. 
  • Provide a broader perspective on women DJs, such as their technical acuity, whether they work in other areas such as production or promoting events.
  • Incorporate women into other commemorative initiatives outside of Women’s History Month.
  • Ask the crucial questions about booking agencies and funding opportunities within the scene: In what ways are booking agencies diverse with respect to their staff, ownership, and rosters? Who is receiving funding?
  • Do your own internal work. Biases regarding race, gender, age, ability, and so on, will show up in the way you ask questions and how you communicate stories.
  • Ask questions of artists and relevant industry people about gender and racial diversity in interviews. Put them on the spot! Normalize talking more freely and frequently about these issues. 
  • If you know that an artist subscribes to sexist or racist views, reconsider writing about them or promoting their work.
  • Think more critically about who and what you are writing about and whether this person/topic is having a positive influence on the scene.
  • Aim to promote artists of marginalized gender and non-white artists as often as possible.

Points of Action for Policy Advocacy Groups and Politicians

  • Determine whether or not your local public funding organizations attach diversity requirements to disbursement.
  • Create and support initiatives for public arts funding. Many under-represented groups do not have the personal wealth to grow their careers; creating funding opportunities [especially ones that highlight diversity] will often result in the support of artists who may otherwise be prohibited from reaching full potential because of financial barriers.Determine whether or not your local public funding organizations attach diversity requirements to disbursement.
  • Understand that arts initiatives serve as a useful knowledge base for evaluating how structural discrimination affects individuals and are a crucial component of freedom of expression [see, for example, The Council of Europe’s Manifesto on the Freedom of Expression of Arts and Culture in the Digital Era].

Points of Action for Festival Attendees

  • If you see that a festival is creating an unsafe space for artists and/or attendees, please contact the festival organizers. It is possible that they are unaware of the incident[s]. If they are unresponsive, or invalidate your concerns with their response, consider raising awareness on social media [if you feel that you will not be attacked for doing so]. Abusive organizations often depend on the silence of onlookers to continue their bad practices.
  • If you feel safe to do so, contact and/or call out festivals on social media when you see a line-up comprised entirely or mostly of white cis-male artists. Festival organizers are very motivated by what they perceive will bring the largest audience to their carefully planned event. Change their perceptions of what audiences want by demanding more diverse line-ups.

6. CREDITS AND PROVISIONS

Disclaimer

We performed this study to the best of our knowledge, trying to validate and cross-check as much data as possible, often using content from festival websites showing line-ups and programs. We welcome any feedback in case of accidentally erroneous data.

Data Sharing

Data sharing is an important way to increase accountability and transparency of a research project. We consider data sharing valuable to validate our findings and to open the opportunity for data to be combined to allow for further analyses and comparisons. Thus, we are happy to share the final dataset from the FACTS Report 2024 upon reasonable request. Please email data@femalepressure.net for more information.

Credits

Core FACTS Team
Corina MacDonald [Montreal]
Meg Wilhoite [Philadelphia]
Stephanie Roll [Berlin]
Susanne Kirchmayr [Vienna]
Tanja Ehmann [Berlin]

Graphic Design
Elisa Metz [Cologne]

Photography
Frederike Wetzels [Cologne]

Press
Angelika Lepper [Utting am Ammersee]

Data Collection Helpers
Caro Arroba [Quito]
Imad / Immy Nowshari [Berlin]
Hypermobil [Bielefeld]
Lea Jung and her seminar students [Siegen]
Maxi Allesch [Vienna]
Olivia Louvel [Worthing]
Paulinhx Desbats [Berlin]
Pooja Bangad [Berlin]
Queenie Charles [Toulouse]
Rosa Wernecke [Berlin]
Sarah Martinus [Berlin]
Špela Cvetko [Ljubljana] Yvonne Kiely [Galway]
Zeynep Özcan [Ann Arbor]
Zoé Devaux [Brussels]
+ others

Festivals whose organizers sent data using our online form:
3hd
Akousma
Bass Coast
Doel
Field Maneuvers
Grounded Festival
Listen
Maintenant
Meakusma
MIRA
MUTEK
Norbergfestival
Oscillation
Paradies Garten
Paradise City
Reperkusound
She Makes Noise
Sustain-Release
Work on Sunday

Thank you!

7. APPENDICES

For the Appendices please see the PDF, pages 48-113

Appendix 1: Gender Proportions for All Festivals by Year [2012 to 2023] p.49
Appendix 2: Gender Proportions by Country and Year [2012 to 2023] p.76
Appendix 3: Gender Proportions by Country, Festival, and Year [2012 to 2023] p.84
Appendix 4: Gender Proportions by Festival Line-Up Size [2012 to 2023, 2022 to 2023] p.105
Appendix 5: Ranking of Festivals by Female Proportion [2022 and 2023] p.106
Appendix 6: Ranking of Festivals by Male Proportion [2022 and 2023] p.110

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graphic design by Elisa Metz, photo by Frederike Wetzels