Balanced Programming
Festival programming in Scotland still leaves a lot to be desired in terms of gender diversity.
This stems from a number of issues -
Gendered Music - the idea that different genders create different types and styles of music
Audience development - many bookers believe their audience don’t want change
Categories - Artists are often categorised as a ‘girl-band’ alongside categories that are not related to gender
As shown in the posters below their has been a marginal shift between 2017 and 2019 line-ups, but there’s still a way to go.
Our work focuses on a few different areas of empowerment and development.
We’re looking at
Artist development and empowerment - giving female and minority artists the tools and support to push their career in the traditional arts forward
Audience development - getting the traditional arts to audiences that may not otherwise have had access
Development of the practice - creating safe spaces and opportunities to allow the traditional arts to develop and reflect current society
Supporting festivals and promoters feeds into all of these areas.
If you are a festival or booker struggling with getting gender balance in your programming, please check out these resources:
Database of Practitioners - A list of female identifying practitioners of the traditional arts
Charter of Good Practice - A set of guidelines to help move towards gender parity in the traditional arts
Examples of Great Programming - A blog of well balanced, interesting and successful festivals
