Reading And Leeds Boss Defends The Lack Of Females On Festival Lineup

March 5, 2015

The boss of Reading and Leeds Festival has responded to criticisms of gender imbalance regarding to the 2015 bill, which features just 9 acts with female members.

This year’s festival will be headlined by Mumford & Sons, Metallica and The Libertines with not one female act appearing on the main stage lineup as of yet. Check out below what the Reading and Leeds lineup poster looks like with all the men removed, below.

Speaking to NME, festival boss Melvin Benn said, “We can’t put a bill together based on gender, we can only put a bill together based on availability and appropriateness.”

“The facts speak for themselves in terms of female acts that were available at that time and that fit the Reading and Leeds bill. There’s nobody more committed to gender equality than I am, but I can’t make an act that isn’t there.”

Last year Paramore co-headlined a day of the festival with Queens of the Stone Age, marking the first time the festival had booked a female-fronted headliner.

It seems that Benn may have been trying for another big female act in Florence + The Machine, though according to NME she will play only one UK festival this year.

Says Benn, “Florence would have been terrific, but there’s a whole number of female acts that would have been terrific on the bill as well. I don’t think people can actually appreciate how difficult it is in terms of timing.”

Benn’s smaller festival Latitude unveiled its lineup yesterday with far more females in the higher echelons of the bill than Reading and Leeds. Portishead will headline one of the nights while Laura Marling and Lianne La Havas have also been booked to play on the main stage.

The 2015 Reading And Leeds Lineup So Far (In Alphabetical Order)

A$AP Ferg
All Time Low
Alvvays
American Football
Ash
Azealia Banks
Bastille
Ben Kahn
Boy Better Know
Bring Me The Horizon
Brodinski
Bury Tomorrow
Camo & Krooked
Cancer Bats
Cardiknox
Catfish and The Bottlemen
Circa Waves
Coasts
Craze
Darlia
Deadmau5
Dillon Francis
Django Django
DMA’s
Everything Everything
Flatbush Zombies
Frank Turner (solo)
Frnkiero Andthe Cellabration
FTSE
Ghost
Glass Animals
Gojira
Gorgon City
Hannah Wants
Hudson Mohawke
Jack Garratt
Jake Isaac
Jamie T
Jamie XX
Kendrick Lamar
Knife Party
Krept & Konan
Lethal Bizzle
Limp Bizkit
Little May
Lonely The Brave
Manchester Orchestra
Marmozets
Mastodon
Metallica (Headliner)
Modern Life Is War
Mumford & Sons (Headliner)
My Nu Leng
Neck Deep
New Found Glory
Nick Brewer
Oneman
Panic! At the Disco
Peace
Pell
Pierce The Veil
Porter Robinson
Pretty Vicious
Radkey
Rae Sremmurd
Rat Boy
Ratking
Rebel Sound
Refused
Royal Blood
Run The Jewels
San Fermin
Simple Plan
Slaves
Stormzy
Swim Deep
The Bulletproof Bomb
The Cribs
The Districts
The Libertines (Headliner)
The Maccabees
The Menzingers
The Wombats
Tourist
Toyboy & Robin
Tyler, The Creator
Walking On Cars
We Are The Ocean
While She Sleeps
Wilkinson (Live)
Wolf Alice
Years & Years