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Standon Calling 2022 is the first major UK festival to achieve a gender-balanced lineup

Mar 23 2022
Written by Jonny Yates

Anne-Marie and Ezra Furman are among the female and non-binary acts on Standon Calling’s lineup. (Eamonn M. McCormack & Matthew Baker/Getty Images)

Standon Calling has become the first major UK festival to achieve a gender-balanced lineup.

The 2022 lineup features a 54 percent representation of female-identifying and non-binary artists.

This includes headliners on the festival’s three biggest stages, with Anne-Marie, Self Esteem and Annie Mac on the bill.

The Hertfordshire festival, which returns on 21-24 July, will host an all-female and non-binary lineup on the Cowshed stage featuring Annie Mac, Logic1000, Jamz Supernova, Elkka and more.

While the Sunday night will see the Laundry Meadows stage do the same, with Self Esteem, Ezra Furman, CMAT and Bessie Turner on the bill.

Also confirmed for the 2022 lineup are Sugababes, Sigrid, Gabrielle, Kelly Lee Owens, Dry Cleaning, Enny, Billy Nomates, Nadia Rose, The Subways and Olivia Dean.

Standon Calling was among a number of UK festivals committed to PRS Foundation’s Keychange initiative in 2018, with the aim to have a gender-balanced line-up by 2022.

It joins specialist genre events, Marsden Jazz Festival and True North Music’s Americana, Country and Roots Festival in achieving a 50:50 gender parity on its lineup.

⚡KEYCHANGE CONGRATS⚡
We would like to show some love again to our signatories for continuing to proactively championing women and gender minorities. @MarsdenJazz, @TrueNorthGigs and @StandonCalling have all recently met their gender balance pledge targets! pic.twitter.com/vu7BrMjlVb

— Keychange (@KeychangeEU) March 17, 2022

Standon Calling festival founder and director Alex Trenchard said the pledge “felt like a huge challenge” at the time.

“But we’re delighted to say that we’re on track to exceed that figure with 54 per cent,” he adds.

Trenchard says they’re “leading the way amongst the industry, showing that gender balance in festivals in 2022 is both possible and a key component of curating an exciting line up”.

Francine Gorman from Keychange says the festival is “demonstrating that gender representative line ups can be achieved” and they’re “giving under-represented artists their rightful space on a prominent festival stage”.

Other UK-based festivals that made the pledge in 2018 include Kendal Calling, Brighton’s The Great Escape, BBC Music Introducing and Liverpool Sound City.