Where are all the female headliners? Festival bookers, bands and fans weigh in on how to change the narrative

As backlashes against male-dominated line-ups become a festival tradition, Rhian Daly investigates why organisers aren't taking heed of criticisms and what needs to change.

Festival culture is full of traditions; the days spent surviving on warm beer and soggy chips, cramming into tents for secret sets and, of course, the annual rite of passage of teenagers celebrating exam results fuelled by cheap booze. While those might make you yearn for summers spent in fields, there’s another, less positive occurrence that’s threatening to join them; the annual furore around line-ups’ lack of non-male artists.

NMEAysha Hussain