With Reeperbahn Festival around the corner (next week!), we take a timely moment to look at some of Germany’s own festival statistics. In research conducted by Rike van Kleef (co-founder of fæemm) for her thesis, “Who sets the tone? About the representation of gender on German music festival stages”, Rike looked at Germany’s five biggest music festivals in 2019, analysing the gender makeup of the line-ups. Although the findings were unsurprising, Rike simultaneously asks the questions as to why bookers go for acts like they do, neglecting women and gender minority acts, calling into play the power/hierarchical structures, alongside the sexism that continues to persist and is all-pervasive. Read more about Rike’s findings here. And if you’re at Reeperbahn Festival next week, you’ll find Rike on panels and moderating – follow Rike to find out exactly where!