The organisers of UNIFY Gathering are the latest to respond to criticism that their lineup is overly populated by male acts. In a lineup of 26 bands, just two feature female members and none feature exclusively female members.
Next year’s UNIFY 2017 is set to be the heavy music festival’s biggest event to date, featuring a lineup topped by the likes of Alexisonfire, Violent Soho, Northlane, Every Time I Die, The Getaway Plan, and Letlive.
UNIFY is just the latest in a string of Australian music festivals to cop flak for a lack of gender diversity on their lineup, with criticism recently lobbed at Canberra’s Spilt Milk Festival and popular bush doof Strawberry Fields.
“We’ve seen the feedback and talk about gender imbalance and our lineup in the last couple of days,” organisers wrote in a statement posted to Facebook. “This is an issue we are aware of and one that’s very important to us all.”
“While our lineup is male heavy, behind the scenes of the festival is a team made up of over 50% females that work hard to bring this event to you all, including directing and overseeing the festival,” they continue.
“Gender equality is a serious and important issue that absolutely needs to be discussed and brought to everyone’s attention. We’ve always taken this issue very seriously at Unify and from the very first event the safety and comfort of our patrons has been paramount.”
“We want everyone to belong and feel accepted within our community. We also want to make it absolutely clear that we do not tolerate or condone sexism, racism, bullying or any forms of intimidation in our community and further, we do not condone the people making such comments.”
“Anyone making negative comments does not represent us and is not welcome at our event. Anything we support or believe will come straight from us. Ultimately, we want you to know that we are listening, we are discussing and this issue is very important to us all, as a festival and as individuals.”
The criticism even prompted AJ Maddah to weigh in. The former Soundwave promoter took to Twitter to argue that a festival is “not the public service” and that the promoter’s duty is “to the ticket buyer to provide best line-up”.
“This means booking the best bands available regardless of the contents of the artists’ pants,” Maddah continued. “I’m sure booking decisions weren’t made to exclude female artists who would have been value to the show. That’d be dumb.”
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“Every festival booker wants to have variety & not a cock-forest. Makes event more interesting. Not always possible.” Indeed, heavy music has traditionally been male-dominated, thinning the options of festival bookers aiming for gender parity.
However, scheduling and price issues aside, as Josh Merriel, presenter of triple j’s short.fast.loud recently pointed out, there are plenty of local and international heavy bands with female members that we should all be supporting.
Taking to Facebook, Josh shared a list of great metal, punk, hardcore, and hard rock bands with female members, including Australia’s own Camp Cope, High Tension, Von Stache, Strawberry Fist Cake, Stand Atlantic, Pitt The Elder, Pinchgut, and Melchior.
UNIFY Gathering 2017
Alexisonfire
Violent Soho
Northlane
Every Time I Die
The Getaway Plan
Letlive
Thy Art Is Murder
Luca Brasi
House vs Hurricane
I Killed The Prom Queen
Moose Blood
Storm The Sky
Counterparts
Deez Nuts
Trophy Eyes
King Parrot
Ocean Grove
Saviour
Columbus
The Dirty Nil
Polaris
The Brave
Bare Bones
Justice For The Damned
Drown This City
Ocean Sleeper
Friday, 13th January – Monday, 16th January 2017
Tarwin Meadows, Gippsland VIC (18+)
Tickets: UNIFY Gathering
