Reading and Leeds festival 2021 slammed for all-male headliners Stormzy, Liam Gallagher & Post Malone as tickets on sale
MUSIC fans have blasted organisers of Reading and Leeds festivals 2021 after they announced all-male headliners.
Many punters were excited at the prospect of festivals returning after the coronavirus pandemic stopped live shows this year, but were left disappointed by the lack of top female acts.
Tickets went on sale today for the 2021 festivals whose headliners include Stormzy, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Post Malone, Disclosure, Liam Gallagher and Queens of the Stone Age.
The gigs, which will happen in August next year, have six headliners who will appear over two main stages.
Some female performers appear further down the line-up include, Doja Cat, Mabel and Beabadoobee.
Not one female artist is included among the headliners which caused fans to vent on Twitter.
One wrote: "It’s actually embarrassing for Reading and Leeds to have doubled the headliner slots, and still not name a woman as one especially when there are countless options breaking through, no excuses."
Another added with a shocked emoji face: "6 'headline' not 1 of them female... Reading festival"
And a third said: "Reading Festival increasing to six headline and still being incapable of booking women".
One Twitter user even went to the effort to remove all the men's names from the line-up to prove how few women were on the line-up.
"I can't get over this, reading festival line-up announcement vs. the women on the line-up," the Twitter user wrote.
Other fans even suggested women that could have headlined the festivals, including, Dua Lipa, Florence + The Machine, Billie Eilish or Charli XCX.
According to , women only represented 12 per cent of the acts at the most recent Reading and Leeds festivals in 2019.
The Hayley Williams-led Paramore headlined the festivals in 2014, but that was the only time in 20 years a female fronted bands did so.
Two years ago, 300 organisations including 45 festivals, signed the Keynote pledge to commit to increasing the representation of women and gender minorities in music especially in line-ups.
But Festival Republic, the company that runs the Reading and Leeds Festivals, did not sign the pledge.
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Festival Republic managing director Melvin Benn said about the pledge in 2018: "Is that the right way to go about it - to say it's got to be 50/50? I don't know that it is."
Melvin then established, ReBalance, to give women more access to recording studios as a mean to “create a bigger pool of female acts”.
“So actually, I do support the principle of it [gender equality],” Melvin said.
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“I've chosen a slightly different way to go about it, but with the same principal aim.”
The Sun Online reached out to Festival Republic for comment.