Reading & Leeds boss claims “there’s just less women available to headline festivals”
Reading & Leeds organiser Melvyn Benn has hit back against criticism for only booking one female headliner in 2023, claiming “there’s just less women available to headline festivals”.
Since 2021, the iconic festival started booking six headline acts rather than three, allowing room for more diverse artists. However, all six headliners in 2021 were male, but last year, both Megan Thee Stallion and Halsey topped the bill.
This year, Billie Eilish is the sole female headliner alongside The Killers, The 1975, Sam Fender, Foals and Imagine Dragons. Now, in a new interview, Benn has acknowledged that a backlash was “inevitable” and put it down to the lack of female artists who are able to headline a festival of this size.
“Yeah, of course, that will be inevitable in that sense. But as I say, we worked really hard to get full diversity, especially women headlining. If they’re not working and they’re not touring, it is just impossible and the reality is there’s just less women available to headline festivals. That’s the reality of it,” Benn told Music Week.
Benn continued: “We’re working to change that, we work really hard on other festivals, on smaller festivals to give people an opportunity to be taking those steps up but, at the same time, artists take those opportunities when they’re ready for it and if they’re male or female, black or white, the artists take the opportunities when they’re ready. If they take the opportunities when they’re not ready, it may not be good for their careers and we have to be careful of that, too.”
He also said it was his job as a promoter to reflect the taste of the audience, and put artists on the bill who will sell tickets. Benn explained: “We are scrutinised not just unfairly but singularly unfairly. In the main, as music promoters, what we do is endeavour to put on the stage what people are listening to. If we put things on the stage that people are not going to listen to, and are not listening to, they’re not going to buy the tickets. As promoters, we’re relatively simple creatures, our dedicated aim is to give the ticket buyer what they want to come and see, it’s a really simple philosophy.”
Other artists set to appear across the twin festivals from August 25th-27th include Bicep, Slowthai, Loyle Carner, Wet Leg, The Snuts, Inhaler, Steve Lacy, Declan McKenna, Central Cee, Nothing But Thieves, You Me At Six, Muna, and Easy Life.
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