New York Times: Why Music Festivals Need More Beyoncés
"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery
New York Times: Why Music Festivals Need More Beyoncés
By Maya Salam
26 April 2019
Like many, I spent two hours last week watching Beyoncé burn past all logical boundaries of musical performance in her new Netflix documentary, “Homecoming,” about her elaborate 2018 Coachella set. It was an epic show — so much so that fans nicknamed the whole event Beychella — but a rare one. She was the first black woman to headline Coachella in its 20-year history.
Beyoncé is just one of several female artists — Ariana Grande, Cardi B, Kacey Musgraves, Halsey, Billie Eilish — dominating the music scene these days with No. 1 albums and songs, raking in awards and breaking records while they’re at it. But as we enter music festival season, you’d never know it.
Female artists are usually starkly absent from headlining spots and are often a fraction of overall lineups.
This month at Coachella, women made up 35 percent of acts, the same as last year, according to Book More Women, a group that manipulates posters of major festivals to show how few women were playing. Further, according to Nielsen, festivalgoers are majority female.
Read the full article in The New York Times.
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