FESTIVAL Republic has announced details of a new initiative which aims to address the scarceness of female acts at the nation’s biggest festivals.
Renowned as the team behind Reading & Leeds: an event which previously courted substantial controversy for the overabundance of mainly male artists in comparison to their female counterparts, they have now declared that this project will give women or groups that are largely comprised of women a week’s studio time.
Known as ‘ReBalance’, this scheme will be centered on The Old Chapel in Leeds with Festival Republic footing the bill for not only the studio but accommodation, travel and engineers.
Speaking on the motivation behind this new three year project, FR boss Melvin Benn has stated that:
“This is about women that are writing songs and getting up and playing constantly. They might be grime acts, they might be acoustic acts – it doesn’t matter, they just have to be acts that can see their future on the festival circuit. It took me a while to work through why there was this lack of women on the line-ups and it isn’t because we don’t want to book them.”
Artists of all genres will be nominated for inclusion in the project and will then be narrowed down by a shortlist of experts which includes managers, streaming services, agents, publishers and others that are connected to the PRS Foundation.
At the conclusion of each year, Festival Republic will then commit to giving those who benefit from the project a slot at one of its many events or a Live Nation festival.
TTV will be sure to update you when how to enter is announced.
