The 1975’s Matty Healy Vows Not to Play at Male-Dominated Music Festivals

In response to the announcement of an overwhelmingly male lineup for this year’s Reading & Leeds music festival, frontman of English pop rock band The 1975, Matty Healy, announced that his band will no longer perform at music festivals without a substantial percentage of female and non-binary artists.

Fans of the UK’s annual festival were disappointed when the lineup was announced, speaking out about its obvious domination of male artists.

The @OfficialRandL lineup with the men removed. Where are all the women aye? #readingfestival #leedsfestival pic.twitter.com/B70Y97IAWZ

— Lucy ⚰️ (@lucy_mccourt) February 11, 2020

Feeling so disheartened about this Reading and Leeds line up. At the blatant lack of want to represent women. For all the 16 year old girls going to their first festival at Reading and Leeds 2020. Just know that you DO belong on those stages.

— Annie Mac (@AnnieMac) February 11, 2020

I am obviously really gassed about the headliners of @OfficialRandL, BUT the lack of female acts across the festival is really dissapointing. It shouldn’t be that difficult to make a concerted effort to make the lineup more balanced & there would be no negatives from doing so!

— Tim HB (@TimHillierBrook) February 12, 2020

Healy joined the conversation by replying to a tweet from Guardian deputy music editor Laura Snapes, calling the overall lineup “dreadful.”

It’s a dreadful lineup overall. But are you concluding that RATM headlining means he doesn’t care about representation? Because that’s the article you’ve linked to.

— Matt Dudley (@mattdudley01) February 11, 2020

After talking back and forth, Snapes called for Healy to start refusing to perform at festivals without a substantial number of non-male artists.

do it MH, add a condition to your rider that says you’ll only play festivals that commit to X% (ideally 50%!) acts that include women and non binary performers

— Laura Snapes (@laurasnapes) February 11, 2020

Healy responded agreeing to the suggestion, saying that his tweet response was him “signing this contract.”

Take this as me signing this contract – I have agreed to some festivals already that may not adhere to this and I would never let fans down who already have tickets. But from now I will and believe this is how male artist can be true allies ❤️ https://t.co/1eaZG2hEze

— 🥾🌍 (@Truman_Black) February 12, 2020

Fans online are applauding this decision and encouraging other male artists to “take note.”

Fantastic to have such a major British band taking the lead on this. Well done @laurasnapes too for keeping the issue in the spotlight https://t.co/eNCvsWPnMd

— Ben Beaumont-Thomas (@ben_bt) February 12, 2020

Been demanding this for yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaars. It’s nice that members of all-male bands are beginning to catch on, though.

— Billy Lunn (@billysubway) February 12, 2020

Take note male artists who are headlining stages across festivals this Summer. https://t.co/V9SnDB0UN3

— Annie Mac (@AnnieMac) February 12, 2020

Healy ended his tweets on a positive note, saying that festivals that value gender equality would be more enjoyable.

Point is that Reading and Leeds with more women would be honestly the best festival in the world that place is vibeyyy. Let’s not judge people and give the benefit of the doubt that people are going to start to listening ❤️❤️I can feel the change !!

— 🥾🌍 (@Truman_Black) February 12, 2020