By Liz Hammond, Digital media editor
The iconic Chicago Grant Park festival, Lollapalooza, is back this summer from August 2 to August 5. They released the lineup on Wednesday, March 21.
Amongst the headliners are The Weeknd, Bruno Mars, Jack White and Arctic Monkeys. But, what everyone was really excited about was Vampire Weekend. This is their first confirmed show of 2018 and the band hasn’t seen the stage since 2014.
I would say that I’m excited about the lineup and I am, because let’s face it, there are a lot of amazing acts this year. But, what I find the most interesting is that there isn’t a female artist listed until the fourth line.
Complex Music made an interesting point when they said, “How the Chicagobased festival decided to put St. Vincent, who has released five studio albums since 2007, after Lil Uzi Vert and Khalid, who put out their albums in 2017, beats me.”
The tragedy continues: out of all 183 artists on that list, only 38 of them are women, which is a measly 20 percent.
St. Vincent wasn’t the only one snubbed. Camila Cabello released her debut album this year and it hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in January. Not only that, but her single, “Havana,” has been on the top 10 of the chart for 31 weeks. But, her name was listed on the fifth row, compared to Post Malone, who has had the same amount of success but was listed on the third row.
According to BBC, 80 percent of festival headliners last year were male. With all of these statistics, it was a shock to see that the lineup for Coachella has more women on their lineup than any previous year, so maybe things are starting to click.
This year, women only make up 33.7 percent, but it was only 25 percent last year. At this point though, any step is a good step.
Another notable festival, Bonnaroo, has increased from just four female performances in 2002 to around 30 on this year’s lineup. It’s mind blowing to me that out the whole lineup five percent of them are women.
In 2017, “Pitchfork” released an article on which festivals have the best or worst gender balance. There were 996 acts logged and out of those, 14 percent were female with an additional 12 percent of groups with male and female members. According to this study, the festivals Pickathon, Pitchfork and Karoondinha rank highly.
On the opposite end, Bunbury, Sloss, Hangout and Shaky Knees are the most egregiously male: somehow, Bunbury and Sloss only have one woman artist each in their lineups.
You’d think that in 2018 it would be better than this. The fact that we are applauding female artists making up 33 percent of lineups is honestly sad. Maybe one day we can see a lineup where female artists are actually appreciated for what they are and what they accomplish.