Emily Eavis defends the decision to have all-male Glastonbury headliners
Emily Eavis, the organiser of Glastonbury Festival, has claimed major festivals are currently struggling with a lack of viable female headliners available because of an industry “pipeline” issue. Eavis made this claim just as she announced a lineup with all-white, all-male headliners for this year’s iteration of the iconic festival.
Elton John, Arctic Monkeys and Guns N’ Roses have now been confirmed to top the bill at Glastonbury 2023, which has drawn its fair share of criticism. According to Eavis, Guns N’ Roses were booked when a previously confirmed female headliner “changed her touring plans”.
Eavis did not confirm who the headliner was originally meant to be, but many people have speculated that it was Taylor Swift, who had been set to top the Glastonbury bill back in 2020 before the Covid pandemic put paid to live concerts, and the US leg of her upcoming tour prevents her from headlining this year.
Still, Eavis said (via The Guardian) that she was “entirely focused on balancing our bill. It’s not just about gender; it’s about every aspect of diversity. We’re probably one of the only big shows that’s really focused on this”. 43% of the 55 currently named artists are non-white or feature non-white artists.
The Glastonbury organiser also noted that the music industry itself ought to be doing all it can to ensure viable female headliners come through the “pipeline”. She said: “We’re trying our best, so the pipeline needs to be developed. 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.”
“It’s top of our agenda, and it probably makes it a bit harder because we’ve decided to make that important to us,” she added, recalling the days when the music industry had only one female booking agent. “To be honest, sometimes it’s easier to keep your head down.”
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