ReBalance – Addressing Gender Imbalance Within the Industry

Every year, festivals are criticised for the lack of female artists on line-ups, particularly towards the top of the bill. One part of the problem for festival bookers is that the number of female artists who are touring, big enough, and suitable style-wise for the festival in question is often extremely limited. To try to remedy this, Festival Republic recently launched ReBalance, which aims to increase both the number of women working in recording studios, and the number of artists who enter the talent pool and progress to headliner level.

Lucy Wood from Festival Republic studio producer Grace Banks and artist Stealing Sheep come together with Katie Chatburn, composer and Senior Lecturer at The Royal Northern College of Music to discuss the barriers to entry for women musicians and studio personnel, how projects like ReBalance can redress this, as well as report on the project so far.