The organisers of Party in the Castle, a music festival held at Exeter Castle, have defended their decision to have no female acts perform this year.
Described as a “headline heavy Day Festival”, it will feature 17 music acts, all of which are male.
In a statement to Exeposé, the organisers said “we encourage gender diversity, [but] we don’t book acts based on their gender or race.”
“we encourage gender diversity, [but] we don’t book acts based on their gender or race.”
The organisers also said they had tried to secure two female acts, but it was concluded that they were “over our budget.”
Responding to the news, the University of Exeter’s Feminist Society (FemSoc) said they were “disappointed” that there would not be a single female performer.
“We…find it hard to understand how there were no female artists that fit the booking criteria. The exclusion of women full stop is rather extraordinary.”
The organisers said they had tried to secure two female acts, but it was concluded that they were “over our budget.”
Last year, 45 major UK festivals pledged to achieve a 50/50 gender split by 2022. But research from the BBC shows that 77 per cent of the nine largest festivals last year had all male lineups.
Last year’s Wireless Festival was heavily criticised after just three of the 37 acts were women. Lily Allen tweeted an image of the lineup posted with all the male acts removed, while Annie Mac described the news as “appalling.”
