‘Not starved for choice’: Good Things and Bluesfest line-ups under fire

Questionable photos of Australian music festival line-ups in 2023 are doing the rounds on social media, and have sparked calls from fans for immediate change.

Major Australian music festivals have come under fire as edited photos of line-ups circle the internet, pointing out the glaring issue of what many describe is an ongoing “sausage fest”.

Good Things festival and Bluesfest recently announced line-ups for their respective 2023-2024 shows, featuring big names like Fall Out Boy, Limp Bizkit, Tom Jones, and Jack Johnson.

Good Things, a festival showcasing all things rock and metal, has been around since 2018, while Bluesfest, the iconic Byron Bay blues music festival, began back in 1990.

Now, Instagram account “@LineupsWithoutMales” has highlighted the number of men performing at several music festivals across Australia compared to women, making it clear men are dominating both the aforementioned festivals.

There are 31 acts performing at Good Things, seven of which feature at least one non-male member. Similarly, at Bluesfest, there are six acts with at least one non-male member among a total of 23 acts in their first line-up announcement.

Instagram account “@LineupsWithoutMaless” compares the male and female performers in the Good Things festival line-up.

“Going for that early 2000s nostalgia when diversity on line-ups didn’t exist I guess. Historically accurate,” former Camp Cope drummer, Sarah Thompson, wrote beneath a bare line-up of seven female artists performing at Good Things.

Adelaide performer Sarah McLeod, front woman of rock band The Superjesus, expressed her disappointment with the line-ups in an interview with news.com.au, calling them a “bit of a backwards step”.

“It’s very disappointing in this day and age. It’s very disappointing that this is still happening,” she said.

“I thought we would have come a lot further than this… This is a bit of a backwards step.”

Instagram account “@LineupsWithoutMaless” compares the male and female performers in Bluesfest’s first line-up announcement.

McLeod questioned whether there were less women in the “male dominated” industry now than there were in the 90s, noting that even back then, she would still talk about how there weren’t enough women around.

“Now there seems to be even less, and I’m wondering is it because they’re not given the same opportunities? Is it because there’s not people actively adding females to line-ups such as this?” she asked, confused.

Listing off some modern rock bands fronted by women, McLeod questioned why they weren’t represented as strongly as their male counterparts.

“I’m not complaining, because I don’t want to start a boys against girls fight, but there does seem to be an awful lot of male dominated festivals.”

Sarah McLeod at the 2022 Airlie Beach Festival of Music.

Some are hoping that Bluesfest, who still has more artists to announce, will bring in more women closer to the festival, which is held on March 28 until April 1 next year.

Organisers for Bluesfest declined to comment. Good Things festival did not respond to request for comment at the time of publication.

A 2017 report from The University of Sydney Business School, Skipping a beat: Assessing the state of gender equality in the Australian music industry, found that music festival line-ups were dominated – sometimes entirely – by men.

Based on independent research, the report noted that, in 2016, Splendour in the Grass had 74 percent male-only acts, while Groovin The Moo had 79 percent male-only acts. Two other prominent festivals, Days Like This and Spilt Milk, had no female acts.

A more recent report by Triple J, By the Numbers in 2020, found that gender balance in five Australian festival line-ups – including Laneway, Groovin the Moo, Falls Festival, Splendour in the Grass, and Listen Out – had generally improved over the last five years.
Vicki Gordon, Founding Executive Producer of the Australian Women in Music Awards, said the industry had reached a crossroads.

“Right now we are at a critical juncture to provide opportunity for women in the Australian Music industry to be equally recognised for their vast invaluable contribution in order to impact real and lasting change for the future of our industry,” she said.

She continued, questioning why women in the industry are continuously overlooked in major festival line-ups.

“Gender bias in the Australian music industry can only be addressed by prioritising inclusivity and representation which is why AWMA is calling on the industry to adopt ‘gender equality’ as a ‘core’ music industry value,” she said.
The call comes in the lead up to the 2023 AWMA’s, held on September 26-27, which flaunts an all female line-up featuring Vanessa Amorosi and Sarah McLeod.

Tina Arena and Vicki Gordon. Picture: Supplied.

Back in 2018, Bluesfest came under similar scrutiny regarding the 2019 line-up, which featured five acts with at least one non-male member out of a total 27 acts.

The Australian reported that in a response to a cheeky Facebook comment asking “where’s the chicks?”, Bluesfest Director Peter Noble fired back a heated response.

“Bet you are an under or unemployed white privileged nobody with too much time on your hands. Going nowhere fast into a life of depression and loneliness due to you having nothing meaningful to justify why you continue to breathe,” he wrote.

Noble backtracked in an interview with the Herald Sun the next day, explaining he “shouldn’t have done it.” He added, “I will contact that person and apologise”.

Speaking to The Australian after the incident, Noble added that in terms of complaints of “sausage festivals”, he would “not [be] listening to those people any more”.

He added: “So they’re not achieving their goal, which is to engage people like me to be aware, and perhaps try to be an agent of change.”

Further, Noble emphasised that he looks at artistic merit rather than gender quotas.

Bluesfest director Peter Noble. Picture: Tao Jones

Meanwhile, McLeod agreed that artistic merit was important, commenting that bands shouldn’t be picked for festivals if they don’t fit with the theme.

However, she added there were plenty of female bands who would fit the current Bluesfest and Good Things line-ups.

“I don’t think that they’re starved for choice,” she told news.com.au.

“I just think that bands should be booked on the merit of their musicianship and the level of connection with their audience. But it’s not like we don’t have the bands that would fit that role.

“I agree that there was more in the 90s but we still have a lot of great bands now that would fit these bills.”

McLeod said that Dallas Frasca, a Melbourne roots rock band fronted by Dallas Frasca, would compliment the Bluesfest line-up well.

Dallas Frasca is a Melbourne based roots/rock performer. Picture: Supplied/Martin Philbey.

Frasca was nominated for the Artistic Excellence Award at the 2018 AWMA’s. Picture: Supplied/SOMEFX.

In a statement, Frasca told us that while there’s been welcomed change in balancing the gender gap in Australian festival line-ups, there was still more work to be done.

“That being said, there are a number of Festivals that are in enormous positions of power that need to be leading the charge,” she said.
“Women & non-binary people have been doing it just as well for many years, so if you’re either hearing excuses, or not seeing this reflected in their lineups, they’re not looking hard enough.”

It comes amid an already rocky year for Bluesfest, after they drew controversy for announcing Sticky Fingers as their headlining act for the 2023 festival.

“Hard to know if Bluesfest didn’t book any women for the same reason it booked Sticky Fingers, or if female artists don’t want to play at a festival that supports Sticky Fingers,” Sally Rugg, a Melbourne activist and former political staffer, posted to Twitter.

Hard to know if Bluesfest didn’t book any women for the same reason it booked Sticky Fingers, or if female artists don’t want to play at a festival that supports Sticky Fingers https://t.co/8WMoOJt1zV

— Deadloch Stan Account (@sallyrugg) August 17, 2023

The lead singer of Sticky Fingers, Dylan Frost, has been riddled with controversy after various allegations of racism and abuse.

These include allegations that he shouted racist comments at a Dispossessed gig in 2016, which Frost has since denied.

As a result of the controversy, other bands from the 2023 line-up, including Samp the Great and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, pulled out of the festival.

Sticky Fingers was eventually pulled from the 2023 line-up in a statement from Noble.

“Bluesfest cannot, sadly, continue to support Sticky Fingers by having them play our 2023 edition, and we apologise to those artists, sponsors and any others we involved in this matter through our mistaken belief that forgiveness and redemption are the rock on which our society is build,” he wrote in a statement.
Moving forward, the Skipping a beat report made five key recommendations to rectify gender inequality in the industry, including addressing gender bias in the Australian music industry by prioritising inclusivity and representation as core industry values.

Other recommendations included increasing women’s representation in decision-making structures, collecting more data on the music industry on a gender disaggregated basis, using gender equality criteria in deciding public funding outcomes, and establishing a well-resourced independent gender equality industry advocacy body.