A literal day after the Strawberry Fields bizzo, we’ve got ourselves another stark example of horrendous gender imbalance in music.
Metal/punk festival UNIFY (“A Heavy Music Gathering“) has revealed the full lineup for its massive, three-day UNIFY 2017 festival, set to take place this coming January in the Gippsland region of Victoria.
The festival, run by label UNFD and co-presented by Triple J and the Australian Hysteria Magazine, dropped the first-and-only announcement for the festival, scheduled for January 13, 14, and 15th next year.
The lineup sports a litany of large local and international punk, hardcore, metalcore, and metal acts, including the likes of Violent Soho, Northlane, Thy Art Is Murder, and a reunited Alexisonfire as headliner.
Check out the announcement poster below:
That’s a hell of a lineup, by anyone’s estimation.
But if you’re gazing across that list thinking it’s a little bit blokey, your eyes aren’t deceiving you.
The lineup, which according to UNIFY is full and final, sports 26 bands:
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, and Ocean Sleeper.
Those 26 bands consist of, in total, 119 band members who will be gracing the stage across the course of the festival.
Of those 119 musicians, 117 are male.
Only 2 are female.
Two bands out of twenty-six in total – Saviour from Perth, and Drown This City from Melbourne – feature women.
That is, not to be too blunt about things, not a great look.
Sure, it’s a reflection on heavy music in general, which historically suffers from a penis-heavy presence. But without the support and promotion of female artists by huge, visible festivals like this one, it’s a thing that’s simply never going to bloody change with any great meaning.
There is enough on this particular lineup to be jazzed on regardless; Alexisonfire and a second Moose Blood tour within 12 months? Hell fkn yeah!
But regardless, a performers ratio of 117:2? Unify could do better.
Much, much better.
Tickets for UNIFY 2017 are on sale from midday this coming Friday via their website.
Photo: Unify.
