Considering all the talk of diverse lineups in recent months, years, and – let’s face it – decades, it’s amazing that some festivals still aren’t getting the message. Such is the case of Aussie music festival Jumanji, which has come under fire for their recent lineup additions.
As Music Feeds notes, the festival, which features the likes of Lil Wayne, Tyga, and Metro Boomin, recently added in a few local artists, including Ivan Ooze and Midas.Gold, who took to Facebook to complain about the festival’s all-male lineup.
“While I’m super stoked that I’m on a bill with one of my idols, I do recognise the lack of female talent on this bill, I want y’all to know that I accepted this gig with no prior knowledge of who else was being booked (besides the first round of announcments)” Midas.Gold wrote online.
“While I’m stupid grateful that they reached out to me I do feel the need to say something, silence is compliance, I don’t think this is a fair representation of our scene & rap music globally something I do feel strongly about on different levels & I hope the people at Jumanji Festival festival can see this & what it might imply intended or not intended.”
Noque Touring, the organisers behind Jumanji Festival, released a statement to Music Feeds yesterday in which they explained their lack of female artists.
“The organisers of the Jumanji Festival would firstly like to acknowledge and apologise for the lack of female artists on the festival this year,” they wrote. “It was always our intention to provide the best possible line-up of entertainment across both genders and every effort was made to secure both male and female acts for this festival.”
“Several high profile international female artists were approached and were either unavailable or not within our budget,” they continued. “We opted to secure the best possible artists irrespective of gender that appeal to the Australian hip hop audience and we are committed to delivering an amazing experience for our patrons.”
“We have acknowledged the feedback online and will ensure there is a stronger female presence on our festival in 2019.”
As Junkee notes, the festival organisers’ response just so happened to tick three of the five boxes on Australian feminism group Listen’s ‘Top 5 Cop Outs For Booking A Line-Up That Is Not Diverse’.
Ironically, this statement from Jumanji happens to come at the same time that 45 festivals announced they have committed themselves to booking completely gender balanced lineups by 2022.
“The fact that women are still underrepresented in the music business – on stage as well as behind the stage or working in management and other leading positions – is undeniable,” explained Susanna Fellner, of Waves Vienna festival.
“But so is the fact that there are thousands of exceptionally competent and talented women working in these fields. Contributing to an initiative like Keychange in order to reach a gender balance of 50:50 and thereby empower women and their visibility in the music business and above seems a perfectly natural thing to do.”
